Judiciary brings public welfare suit

Source:Global Times Published: 2014-12-22 0:43:01

Local prosecutors’ environmental lawsuit first of its kind


A local procuratorate in Guizhou Province recently filed a lawsuit against the local environmental protection bureau for its reluctance to impose punishment on polluting enterprises, the first such lawsuit filed by prosecutors in China, the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

The Jinsha county procuratorate claimed that the local environmental protection bureau fined a construction company 121,520 yuan ($19,529) for noise pollution in September 2013, but the company did not pay.

The bureau again issued a notice in August, requiring the company to pay the fine before August 23 or face punishment for overdue payment. 

The company paid the fine on October 13, but the bureau did not administer any additional punishment.

The company postponed payment for nearly a year, causing losses to State-owned capital, an offense which should be punished, said the procuratorate.

The Jinsha county procuratorate then pressed charges against the local environmental protection bureau on October 20, asking a court in Renhuai, another city in the province, to require the bureau to carry out its duty to punish polluting enterprises.

Xiao Lihong, chief prosecutor of the county procuratorate, said they intended to use the case as a pilot for exploring the use of lawsuits to secure the public interest in environment-related cases.

The bureau administered additional punishment to the company after receiving the court's notice. The court then approved the procuratorate's proposal to withdraw the lawsuit as the procuratorate said it had achieved its goal.

Loose oversight of companies' environmental violations is a persistent issue in China. The Jinsha case serves as an example that the original supervisory mechanism is not compatible with a country governed by the rule of law, said Qin Zhen, director of the local environmental protection bureau.

There are currently no articles related to public welfare litigation in the Administrative Procedural Law or the draft amendment.

However, a key plenum of the Communist Party of China in October explicitly requested the exploration of a mechanism for procuratorates to file such lawsuits.

Disputes related to environmental pollution have become a common problem in recent years. More than 300,000 environment petitions were filed from 2006 to 2010. However, less than 1,000 cases entered judicial proceedings.

"Some government agencies did not discharge their duties according to the law, which is a major factor in the frequent occurrence of environmental problems," said Qin Tianbao, an environment law professor with Wuhan University, adding that promoting public welfare lawsuits could provide an effective legal means to prod reluctant local governments.



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