The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday issued a judicial explanation on independent trial of lawsuits against government, which mainly involves cases brought by individuals to get rid of random meddling in the trial of such cases by local authorities.

SPC Vice President Xi Xiaoming said litigants who sued government bodies are often in a feeble and powerless position compared with government departments. This is because the current law ruled "administration lawsuits should be tried by regional courts where defendants live".

"Improper interference by some local administration organs occurred frequently in China, which made local, especially grassroots, courts hard to exercise independently and fairly their legal authority, thus affect the credibility of justice," Xi said.

"In reality, manpower, property, estate or other possessions of local courts all depend on same-level local governments. Courts could easily harbor worries while hearing administrative cases suing governments," he said.

The explanation, to take effect on Feb. 1, is to safeguard court authority, guarantee public legal interests and maintain social justice, he said.

From 2003 to 2007, more than 470,000 lawsuits against government bodies were tried in courts of the first instance. Last year alone saw more than 100,000 such cases, statistics showed.

Xi said many useful explorations had been made by local courts to find out effective measures, thus eliminating unnecessary official interference.

Among them, "courts must be allowed to try lawsuits against government bodies outside the area of the government body's authority" was a proved effective way.

The judicial explanation then legitimated the practice which could "alleviate pressures faced by local courts and judges and remove any direct official disturbance", Xi said.

"Trying cases in other areas could finally cure the headache of hearing cases involving government bodies at a relatively small cost," he added.

The explanation made clear that cases with defendants being governments above the county level, complicated cases with serious social impacts, or involving foreigners or regions such as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, should be dealt with by intermediate courts.

SPC President Xiao Yang said last year at the fifth national meeting on trials of lawsuits against governments, "If lawsuits against government bodies are not tried fairly, the legitimate rights of litigants are not protected."

"Disputes between the public and government bodies, if not settled properly, will only lead to public grievances and affect social harmony and stability," Xiao said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)