The Court of Appeal has issued an interim order suspending an Extraordinary Gazette which halted the operations of the Sri Lanka Automobile Sports (SLAS).

The interim order was issued on Tuesday (22 Aug), the SLAS said in a press release issued today (25 Aug).

Accordingly, as per the relevant interim order, the temporary seven-member committee which was appointed by way of the said gazette is no longer legally valid. 

Thus, with this order, the previous SLAS council will be back on duty, while SLAS itself will continue to remain as the governing body for motor racing in Sri Lanka.

On 09 August, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Roshan Ranasinghe issued a gazette suspending the registration of SLAS, while a temporary seven-member committee was also appointed to oversee the functions of the association.

Mahesh Gammanpila, a senior public administrative officer, was appointed as Chairman of the said committee while Major General (Retd) Indunil Ranasinghe and Pubudu Wickrama were appointed as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. 

Other committee members included Rameesh Mahamur, Nishan Weerasuriya, Champika Amarasekara and Sajad Suhair.

In the same gazette notification, the Sports Minister authorized Dr. Shemal Fernando, the Director-General of Sports, to convene a special general meeting of the association to appoint an election committee for the automobile body.