The Court of Appeal, with Justice Sobhitha Rajakaruna presiding, delivered judgement on 29 July 2021 in a writ application filed against officials of the Ministry of Sports and office bearers of the Sri Lanka Archery Association (SLAA), quashing the election of Cdr. (Retd.) H.U. Silva as President of the 2021/2023 SLAA committee and prohibiting the SLAA from allowing Silva to hold office in the SLAA in future by election or otherwise. The application was made by two distinguished archers Capt. (Retd.) H.K.I. Perera and Sajeev De Silva, who have represented Sri Lanka in the international arena and are office bearers of archery clubs affiliated with the SLAA. The petitioners took up the position that Silva’s election to the post of 2021/2023 SLAA President at the Annual General Meeting held in May 2021 was unlawful as a result of a previous violation of the sports law and regulations by himself and two others in 2019. This violation was confirmed by the findings of an inquiry conducted in July 2019 by an Advisory Committee appointed by the Ministry of Sports comprising a retired Judge of the Supreme Court and two retired Assistant Directors of Sports. Silva was deemed ineligible for nomination to the SLAA committee going forward. Despite this, he stood for an election uncontested for the post of 2021/2023 SLAA President. The petitioners had also brought to the attention of the court that Silva’s nomination at the impugned election was flawed due to one of the three members of the SLAA Election Committee being intentionally and improperly overlooked in compiling and proposing the list of nominees, due to having expressed concerns over Silva’s eligibility. The Court of Appeal held that Silva’s election to his current post of 2021/2023 SLAA President is null and void as a result of his previous violation of the sports law and regulations. In doing so, the court highlighted the infamous dicta of Lord Denning in Macfoy vs. United Africa Co. Ltd. (1931) 3 All ER 1169: “You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stay there. It will collapse.” The court further held that the SLAA is not entitled to allow Silva to be elected to or otherwise hold office in the SLAA in future. By order of the Court of Appeal, Silva’s uninterrupted tenure as an office bearer of the SLAA for the past 23 years comes to an end. Speaking exclusively to The Morning Sports, former national archery champion Sajeev De Silva said: “As athletes, we are elated with the decision to remove the President of the Association. Archery is a sport in which Sri Lankans have the potential to win internationally, but it was never nurtured. We hope that a legitimate committee will work towards it, now that the bottleneck has been removed.”