Announcement on Soliciting Plantiff(s) for Public Interest Litigation
A public interest lawsuit filed in 2019, in which the defendant was Datang Inner Mongolia Duolun Coal Chemical Co., Ltd. and the plaintiff was China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), was rejected by the High People's Court in the second instance by the excuse of the plaintiff's being unqualified after four years of review and trial. We believe that the ruling of the Inner Mongolia High Court was an obvious error in the application of law, which directly violated the provisions of Article 58 of the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, and incorrectly applied the provisions of Article 5 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of Law in the Trial of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation Cases. We will submit a retrial application to the Supreme People's Court in the near future, and believe that the highest judicial authority in China will be able to correct the mistakes of the Inner Mongolia High Court.
The evidence in this case shows that the fact that the defendant has polluted the environment is conclusive, and the soil and groundwater have not been restored after being polluted. As of the date of the second trial, the defendant also did not obtain the completion acceptance from environmental protection facilities and did not obtain the construction land permit for 3962.67 acres of land as pointed out by the National Audit Office. The situation of soil and groundwater pollution in the case is still ongoing, the defendant's illegal behavior has not been corrected, and the social environment and public interests have not received due relief. The environmental violations involved in this case have been occurring for many years, with the most serious incident occurring in 2016, the evaporation pond piping incident, which has been going on for seven years. The retrial process in this case still needs some time. In order to prevent the indefinite pollution and environmental violations, prevent more serious pollution, and provide timely relief to the public interest of society and the environment, we have decided to actively apply for retrial while also soliciting new plaintiff(s) for environmental civil and public interest litigation from national environmental-protection social organizations in this case.
After the determination of the new plaintiff(s) in this case, we solemnly promises that:
- We will serve as a public interest litigation support unit, providing all the information and all possible assistance free of charge, in order to efficiently promote the trial of cases, stop environmental violations by polluters, restore the polluted environment in accordance with the law, compensate for the loss of ecological service functions, and provide practical environmental judicial relief for the public interest of the social environment.
- If the plaintiff qualification of CBCGDF in this case is determined through a retrial, we can participate in the litigation as a joint plaintiff based on the wishes of the new plaintiff and the opinions of the trial court, or we can renounce our identity as a joint plaintiff and continue to participate in the litigation process as a case supporter.
Our goal is to correct environmental violations, restore polluted environments, and make polluters compensate for ecological losses through public interest litigation. More public attention should be paid to this case, to the environmental protection of soil and groundwater in China, to spread environmental protection knowledge and laws, and to make environmental polluters and ecological spoilers publicly denounced. Our ultimate goal in conducting public interest litigation is to disseminate the concept ecological civilization more vividly and directly through real-life cases, and promote the construction of ecological civilization.
Sincerely,
China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
July 13th, 2023
Brief of the Case
Plaintiff: China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
Defendant: Datang Inner Mongolia Duolun Coal Chemical Co., Ltd
On May 6, 2019, the Intermediate Court of Xilinguole League accepted the case materials and officially filed the case on October 13, 2021, nearly two and a half years later. The first instance judgment rejected all the plaintiff's claims.
On June 16, 2022, CBCGDF filed an appeal.
On April 26, 2023, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued an administrative penalty warning to CBCGDF, and the administrative penalty decision is currently in the administrative review stage. According to current laws and regulations, if the administrative penalty is not revoked, CBCGDF will lose its qualification to file environmental civil public interest litigation in the next five years.
On July 7, 2023, CBCGDF received the civil ruling from the High People's Court of the Inner Mongolia, which set aside the judgment of first instance and rejected the plaintiff's lawsuit, and noted that "this ruling is final". The reason for the ruling is that CBCGDF has lost the lawsuit qualification after being punished by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The date of the ruling is "June 21, 2022" (The year 2022 stated in the ruling may be a clerical error. We do not know the reason for this error, and this guess is purely factual and has no other intention).
Editor: Richard
Checked by Irene
Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776
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