The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (Lake House) filing objections in a case where Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) President and Vice President sought enjoining orders prohibiting ‘Silumina’ newspaper from publishing any content related to SLC and its officials, requested the Colombo District Court yesterday (25) to reject the case on the first instance without taking it to trial.

It was pointed out that the plaintiffs have fraudulently and deceptively concealed the necessary facts and obtained Enjoining Orders and requested to terminate the obtained Enjoining Orders and dismiss the case.

The objections further stated that the publication of articles in the Silumina newspaper regarding SLC is only a disclosure of the facts to the public for the public good, and that the defendants had no intention of harming the plaintiffs or anyone else.

When the case was called before Colombo Chief District Judge Sandun Vithana yesterday, the relevant Enjoining Orders were extended till August 4 and the defendants presented objections to the Court through a motion.

SLC President and Vice President filed the lawsuits stating that two articles published in the Silumina newspaper on April 23 and June 18, 2023 had defamed them.

Journalist Fawz Mohammed and the Lake House have been named as defendants in the case.

After unilaterally considering the relevant complaint, the Colombo Chief District Judge had issued these Enjoining Orders on July 26.

Attorney-at-law I.M. Jayawardena submitted the objections in the court on behalf of the defendants. 

Attorney-at-law Sanjaya Fonseka appeared for the plaintiffs under the instructions of President’s Counsel Kuvera De Zoysa while Attorney-at-law Sanjeeva Dahanayake appeared for the defendants as per the instructions of I.M. Jayawardena.