Mechanism in place to ensure fair rulings

Move follows rise in number of litigants unhappy with administrative sentences

Chinese prosecutors have stepped up supervision over verdicts and procedures in administrative litigation to ensure laws are accurately applied and justice is firmly upheld, according to a report being reviewed by legislators.

"In recent years, we've seen a significant growth in the number of cases in which litigants were unhappy with effective administrative adjudication and applied to us for supervising the court decisions," Ying Yong, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said while delivering the report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, on Tuesday.

Data released in the report showed that from 2019 to last year, prosecutors across the country handled 87,000 such cases, up nearly threefold from the previous five years, with an average annual increase of 22 percent.

In the first nine months of this year alone, 18,000 cases were handled, consistent with the same period last year, the report added.

"When prosecutors identified errors in the effective rulings, they either lodged protests directly to courts or suggested that they hold retrials of relevant administrative lawsuits," Ying said.

"If the verdicts were correct after review, the litigants' application for supervision would not be supported, but prosecutors would give them further explanation of laws," he added.

From January 2019 to September this year, procuratorial departments raised such differences and suggestions in 2,781 cases, leading to revised verdicts in some instances, according to the report.

During the same period, prosecutors also issued approximately 54,000 procuratorial suggestions to courts after finding irregularities in the handling of administrative litigation, such as the incorrect application of trial procedures, delayed hearings and illegal ruling delivery, it said, adding that 99 percent of the advice offered has been accepted by the courts.

In addition, prosecutors nationwide have played their supervisory role in filing public interest litigation, endeavoring to urge poorly performing government agencies to correct mistakes and promote law-based governance, it said.

Since the Administrative Procedure Law was revised in 2017, prosecutors have had the right to send pre-litigation suggestions to government departments if they find that administrative affairs were handled improperly.

If the departments fail to rectify the problems, prosecutors can initiate public interest litigation.

According to the report, Chinese prosecutors sent 778,000 pre-litigation suggestions and initiated 5,931 public interest lawsuits between July 2017 and September this year, the majority of which were corrected by government agencies and supported by courts.

For example, after finding that the ruins of a local ancient city wall had collapsed and been illegally occupied, prosecutors in Hebei province first suggested local cultural relics protection authorities strengthen protection measures, it said.

Finding that authorities were reluctant to solve the problem, the prosecutors then sued them and won, it said.

While cleaning up the illegal facilities around the ancient wall, the prosecutors also urged the authorities to apply for special funds to repair the ruins and protect cultural relics, it added.

Now, the scope of such litigation covers various areas, including environmental conservation, food and drug safety, preservation of State assets and juvenile protection.