Muzaffarpur: A Bihar court on Saturday took cognizance of a complaint against Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and spinner Harbhajan Singh for giving a miss to Padma awards ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

R C Malviya, Chief Judicial Magistrate of Muzaffarpur, has asked the first class Judicial Magistrate N K Thakur to initiate the proceedings.

Both the crickers had missed the ceremony on April 4 this year and were criticised for it by Sports Minister MS Gill.

Harbhajan had cited 'family commitments' as reason for missing the ceremony. Dhoni was in Mumbai on that day but left for South Africa to play in the Indian Premier League the same night.

The compliant, filed by senior advocate Sudhir Ojha, alleged that the gesture of the two players hurt sentiments of cricket fans.

Ojha, who filed the complaint on April 16, 2009, has pleaded legal action against the two cricketers for staying away from the prestigious ceremony.