Beijing's first case concerning China's landmark Property Law was put before the courts on Monday, a week after the law came into effect.

 

A 60-year-old man surnamed Shen filed a lawsuit to the Beijing Changping Intermediate People's Court against the Zhongjiaxin auction company for auctioning off this September six apartments he bought for 1.2 million yuan in 1998 from a Mr. Yan.

 

Yan was convicted of taking bribes in 2002 and had his property confiscated. The Intermediate People's Court of Shijiazhuang in Hebei ruled that the houses were owned by Yan and entrusted the Zhongjiaxin auction company to conduct the sale.

 

Shen said that if he failed to retrieve his houses, he would sue the Intermediate People's Court of Shijiazhuang and ask for compensation from the government.

 

However the court hearing was deferred because the auction company "didn't receive the subpoena", according to Li Bing, from the auction house.

 

"Shen's appeal was in accordance with the fourth and 64th articles of the Property Law, which ensures an individual's lawful possession of property and the inviolability," said Wang Liming, head of the Law School of the Renmin University of China and also one of the drafters of the law.

 

The law, approved by the national legislature in March after repeated revisions and an unprecedented eight readings, is aimed to provide equal protection to both state and private properties

 

The 247-article law stipulates that no units or individuals may infringe upon the property of the state, the collective and the individual.

 

The concept of improving the protection of private property was first brought up at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in November 2002. In March 2004, the NPC adopted a major amendment to the Constitution, stating that people's lawful private property is inviolable.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2007)