Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt proceedings against two persons for allegedly threatening him with consequences for representing Muslim claimants in the Ayodhya land dispute.

Dhavan has named Prof. N. Shanmugam and Sanjay Kalal Bajrangi.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is hearing a batch of petitions related to the Ram temple-Babri Masjid title dispute.

In his contempt application filed through advocate Ejaz Maqbool, senior advocate Dhavan submitted that he had received a letter dated August 14, 2019, from Shanmugam threatening him “for appearing for the Muslim parties”.

The letter was sent “C/o. Supreme Court Bar Association”, and the staff of the association handed it over to him on August 22 near Bar Library-1.

Dhavan submitted that he had received a WhatsApp message from Bajrangi, “which is also an attempt to interfere with the administration of justice before this Hon’ble Court”.

Dhavan has placed before the bench, also having Justices S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and Abdul Nazeer, photocopies of the WhatsApp message where the threat had allegedly been made. The contempt application does not mention the date when the message was sent.

Dhavan pleaded that the “petitioner has been accosted both at home and in the court premises with intimidating behaviour by several persons”.

“By sending the letter the alleged contemnor has committed criminal contempt because he (Shanmugam) is intimidating a senior advocate who is appearing for a party/parties before this Hon’ble Court and discharging his duties as a senior advocate and he ought not to have sent such a letter and therefore the petitioner is constrained to file the present contempt petition before this Hon’ble Court,” Dhavan’s petition said.