Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has refused to comply with an order by the Right to Information Commission giving SLC a deadline to release a final inquiry report on allegations of sexual harassment by SLC officials against female cricketers subject to deleting the names of the alleged victims.

SLC has appealed to the Court of Appeal saying that it is not bound by the RTI Act and complaining that the RTI Commission had not considered the need to ‘protect’ the privacy rights of other persons besides the identified victims’.

This reference to ‘other persons’ means that SLC is protecting its officials implicated in the report, activists monitoring the case told the Colombo Telegraph. SLC seems to be more interested in protecting their officials who had breached their official functions than protecting female cricketers from sexual harassment, they said.   

In 2015, CricInfo reported that the SLC had admitted that investigations into allegations of sexual harassment against the country’s women’s team have concluded that two male officials were guilty. An inquiry into the allegations by a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and another inquiry by lawyer M Jinadasa referred to the’ unsatisfactory situation that prevailed in the selection and other aspects relating to women’s cricket and widely prevalent perceptions of favouritism and bias”.

Though the SLC said that it was “very concerned” by those observations, will study the reports further and take appropriate action, there was nothing to indicate that corrective action had been taken.

The RTI Commission was petitioned by a journalist who had asked for a copy of the Jinadasa report on the basis of the public interest. That had been refused by SLC on the basis that this will disclose ‘personal information.’ When he appealed to the Commission, the SLC had taken up the stand that it is a private and voluntary sports body and not a Public Authority under the RTI Act.

The Commission held that the SLC is bound by the RTI Act, that it is established under the relevant law and regulations allowing it to function as the apex regulator of cricket in the country with accountability to Parliament. The Commission has also pointed out that SLC receives substantial assistance from the International Cricket Council (ICC). It directed the release of the report deleting the names and details of the female cricketers who had made allegations.

But the SLC has appealed to the Court of Appeal to prevent the Commission taking further steps in the matter against the SLC by enforcing the order in the Magistrate’s Court. It has informed the Court that the Commission had not taken into account, the ‘privacy concerns’ of ‘other persons.’

The case is listed to be heard by the Court of Appeal.