162: Is a reason required to exercise supervisory power?

The staff member still had that expression: "Lawyer Zhou, you said the same thing four days ago, and then you turned around and brought nine cases over."

"Huh?" Zhou Yun scratched his head, his face, which had been full of sincerity, instantly turned to shock: "Did I? I don't remember doing that, do I? How could I possibly go back on my word!"

"Everyone online knows that I, Zhou Yun, am a man of my word. I never talk nonsense…"

Mr. Zhou's voice grew softer and softer, until he finally stopped.

The staff member still said: "Lawyer Zhou, go on, we have surveillance here, you can continue."

Zhou Yun, with a face full of smiles, said: "Well, I am a well-known lawyer online after all, so give me some face, please! I promise this is the last time!"

The staff member took the materials and began to read them, asking curiously as he read: "Lawyer Zhou, this is the case you mentioned before, right? The review result came out so quickly?"

Zhou Yun smiled and said: "I have a lot of pull."

All the materials were complete, and after reporting to the leaders of the Case Filing Division, the case was filed on the spot.

There was no need to consider mediation; this case was already famous in the Yinshan District, so mediation was definitely impossible.

Of course, strictly speaking, administrative litigation generally cannot be mediated.

Article 60 of the Administrative Litigation Law stipulates that people's Courts shall not apply mediation when hearing administrative cases. However, cases involving administrative compensation, restitution, and the exercise of discretionary power by administrative organs as stipulated by laws and regulations may be mediated.

That is to say, except for those three exceptions, others cannot be mediated.

So you can see that in practice, it is generally referred to as "substantive resolution of administrative disputes."

This statement is perfectly fine and is also the main purpose of current administrative litigation work, as few people litigate just for the sake of litigating.

Including a certain handsome guy who prefers to remain anonymous, he also undertakes administrative litigation to achieve his goals, it's just that the commotion might be a little bit big.

Time slowly passed, and even if they were unwilling, the Education Department had to prepare to appear in Court to respond to the lawsuit.

Administrative litigation applies the reversal of the burden of proof, which means that the Education Department and the Administrative Review Bureau must prove themselves that this indeed involves commercial secrets and therefore cannot be disclosed.

If they cannot prove it, then it must be disclosed!

Perhaps everyone was scared, anyway, it didn't take long, almost at the deadline for submitting evidence, the Railway Transportation Court issued a summons for a hearing.

The time quickly arrived for the hearing.

Zhou Yun left the hotel with his bag and went all the way to the Railway Transportation Court.

The address on the summons was Courtroom Six. He quickly found the place, pushed the door open, and saw three people already sitting in the defendant's seats.

Two of them looked like they were from the Bureau of Justice responsible for appearing in Court, and the other one was probably from the Education Department.

Zhou Yun didn't greet them, he just sat down in the plaintiff's agent's seat.

He had already read the other party's statement of defense and evidence, and it could be said that, given the current situation, he was bound to win.

Unless the Court stubbornly ruled against him, but he had done so much before, and it wasn't for nothing.

On the other side, the few people also remained silent. This matter could not be compromised now; it had to be ruled upon by the Court.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the Clerk confirmed the identities of both parties, and then the members of the collegial panel walked in, and the trial officially began!

First, Zhou Yun made his statement.

"Plaintiff Luo Hongxuan applied for information disclosure on… and received a non-disclosure response from Defendant 1 (Silver Fir District Education Bureau) on…, citing commercial secrets as the reason."

"Later, the plaintiff filed an administrative reconsideration with Defendant 2 (Reconsideration Administration Bureau), and Defendant 2 made a reconsideration decision on…, upholding the response made by Defendant 1."

"The plaintiff believes that the actions of the two defendants violate facts and laws, and therefore sues the Court, requesting the Court to support the plaintiff's claims."

The statement was finished, it was that simple: your actions violate the law, so we request the Court's support.

Soon, the defendant's side presented their defense.

"We believe that the plaintiff's application did not state the reasons, and the information requested for disclosure involves third-party commercial secrets, therefore, our decision not to disclose it complies with legal provisions… We request the Court to dismiss the plaintiff's claims."

Zhou Yun remained silent. The other party had two reasons: one was that the plaintiff's application did not state the reasons, and the second was that it involved commercial secrets.

Basically, the reason "not stating the reasons" is the most common reason in current information disclosure applications.

Many administrative organs use this to prevaricate, saying that if you want to apply for disclosure, you must have a necessary reason for disclosure, otherwise, why would you apply for something out of nowhere.

And then many people get coaxed into it.

Here, Zhou Yun didn't write any reasons because it wasn't necessary to write them. You apply if you want to apply.

This is different from the previous unfinished building case, where one had to apply as an interested party to circumvent the reason of commercial secrets.

But here, on the one hand, it's not necessary, and on the other hand… there's no evidence, just a cooperation agreement, and that's not enough.

After both parties finished their statements, it was time for presenting and cross-examining evidence. Zhou Yun's evidence consisted of the information disclosure application materials and the two response letters from the other party.

The defendant, on the other hand, presented a lot of evidence, the most direct being the original contracting agreements with the contractor, Kangde Construction Company.

This was used to prove that the information Luo Hongxuan applied for was a commercial secret.

Soon, it was time for the Court debate.

Zhou Yun spoke first: "Defendant 1 stated in their defense that our application did not specify the reasons, and I find this simply absurd!"

As soon as he said this, the Presiding Judge above him's eyelids twitched, and he quickly knocked the gavel, saying: "Plaintiff's agent, please pay attention to your remarks."

Zhou Yun immediately acknowledged, and then said: "I just used a rather unpleasant word to describe the defendant's defense, mainly because, as an administrative reconsideration organ's staff member, the defendant didn't even grasp the core of information disclosure!"

"Article 5 of the Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information states that administrative organs shall adhere to the principle of disclosure as the norm and non-disclosure as the exception when disclosing government information, and shall follow the principles of fairness, impartiality, legality, and convenience for the people."

"You might say you don't know this, but in 2019, when the new Regulations on the Disclosure of Government Information were issued, the head of the Ministry of Justice also said in response to a reporter's question that disclosure should be the norm and non-disclosure the exception!"

"In other words, applying for disclosure does not require a reason; this is every citizen exercising their right to know and right to supervise!"

"So, is the defendant saying that I also need to tell you the reason why I'm supervising you? Does exercising the right to supervise require a reason?"

This is the most common situation where people are prevaricated in practice. Anyone who has worked in related fields knows the simplest trick: they first ask you to write down the purpose of the information.

That is, what you intend to use this disclosed information for.

Many people don't know, so they write whatever they are told to write. As a result, after writing, the other party says, "Look, you're using it for this, so you need to submit what kind of supporting materials…"

Alright, you can take your time preparing. Once it reaches this step, you've already fallen into their trap.

At this point, Zhou Yun smiled and said, "You wouldn't even know what your Justice Department's boss... Ahem, the person in charge said, would you?"

The Presiding Judge struck the gavel again: "Plaintiff's agent, please control your emotions and stop talking about matters unrelated to this case. This is a warning."

Zhou Yun pouted, wondering if he could even speak properly anymore.

In fact, the "Regulations" do have a provision, Article 35 states that if the quantity and frequency of an applicant's requests for government information are clearly beyond a reasonable scope, the administrative organ may require the applicant to state the reasons.

You see, it's just a simple generalization. The regulation states that if the quantity and frequency of applications exceed a reasonable scope, then reasons can be requested.

But in practice, they just ask you for the reason first… So Zhou Yun had to argue it out properly.

He didn't care, he was just afraid that the other party wouldn't dare to argue. If it went deeper, it would be hard to say.

"Secondly, regarding the claim of commercial secrets, this is even more… insufficient evidence. Article 15 of the 'Regulations' stipulates that administrative organs shall not disclose government information that involves commercial secrets, personal privacy, or other information whose disclosure would harm the legitimate rights and interests of a third party."

"And the defendant's evidence cannot prove that the so-called information disclosure would harm the legitimate rights and interests of a third party."

This is also a point that is easily confused in practice. It's not that it cannot be disclosed because it involves commercial secrets, but rather because if this commercial secret is disclosed, it will cause harm to the legitimate rights and interests of a third party.

Therefore, it is necessary to prove two points: "this is a commercial secret" and "disclosure will cause harm to the legitimate rights and interests of a third party."

If it does not cause harm to the legitimate rights and interests of a third party, then even if it is a commercial secret, it can be disclosed.

"And now, this third party, Kangde Construction Company, has already been deregistered for nearly ten years. I do not believe that disclosing this information would cause harm to the rights and interests of a legal person that has been deregistered for nearly ten years."

It's a very simple logic. Everyone knows that a legal person is not a human being, and the deregistration of a legal person is equivalent to the death of a natural person.

So it's very simple, this legal person is "dead," has been dead for almost ten years, and then you say that disclosing this commercial secret will harm the legitimate rights and interests of the other party?

Come on, explain it to me.

The three people on the opposite side were stunned by Zhou Yun's storm-like offensive.

They had never encountered an administrative litigation lawyer with such strong attacking power before.

Anyway, for a moment, the person from the Bureau of Justice even felt that Zhou Yun on the other side wasn't there to litigate; he was just there to enjoy this kind of debate…