Yuan X v. the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province (Government Information Disclosure)—Determination of the Necessity to Protect Rights in Administrative Lawsuit Concerning Government Information Disclosure

An application for the disclosure of government information shall be submitted to the government information disclosure institution attached to an administrative organ in a prescribed form. If the applicant sends a letter to the legal representative of the administrative organ and the content of the letter is not in conformity with the prescribed form, and if an administrative organ fails to reply or treats it as a complaint via letters and visits, and so the applicant files a lawsuit on the grounds that the administrative organ fails to perform its duty of disclosing government information, the people’s court shall rule against filing the case or dismiss the case directly. Whereas if the content of the letter is basically in conformity with the prescribed form, the date which the information disclosure institution receives the forwarded application in reality or the date has been ascertained by the applicant shall be regarded as the “date of receipt of the application”, and in accordance with which the relevant reply term shall be calculated.