Former Council Member of Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) Roshan Deen on Friday (7) filed a petition before the Court of Appeal charging SLR Competent Authority (CA) Shemal Fernando with contempt of court.

This is over Fernando’s failure to hold the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of SLR before the end of January this year as promised in an undertaking to the court. Fernando is also the Director General (DG) of the Sports Ministry.

These details were conveyed to the press by President’s Counsel and former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, who represented Deen.

Sumanthiran told reporters that the failure of the Sports Ministry DG to press ahead with the election of office bearers to SLR before the end of last month had prompted his client to file contempt of court papers.

According to Sumanthiran, after considering the petition filed by his client, the court had issued a ruling on the Sports Ministry DG, returnable on 24 March, in respect of the failure to hold the SLR AGM. 

The SLR AGM, which was scheduled to be held on 21 January, was postponed indefinitely by the Sports Minister following complaints by the Election Committee (EC) of failure by certain candidates to adhere to eligibility criteria.

Pressure had also been exerted on the subject Minister by Asia Rugby to conduct the AGM following amendments to the SLR Constitution granting voting powers to ‘A’ Division clubs or face sanctions. 

The Colombo District Court has already imposed an enjoining order on the EC of SLR on holding the AGM, having considered a petition filed by former national cap Lasitha Gunaratne.

Gunaratne has petitioned the court over the dismissal of his nomination to contest the post of president of SLR by the EC without a valid reason. The case is to be heard next on 25 March. 

(JK)