Law: "List of Documents Requested by Assembly Member's Office, 'Non-disclosure' Due to Civil Complaint Concerns Is Illegal"

Seoul Administrative Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A court ruling has declared that the Ministry of Health and Welfare's decision to withhold the list of documents requested by a member of the National Assembly was illegal.

According to the court on the 4th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 6 (Chief Judge Lee Jooyoung) recently ruled partially in favor of plaintiff A in the first trial of the lawsuit to cancel the refusal of information disclosure filed against the Minister of Health and Welfare.

Earlier, in September last year, A requested information disclosure from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The requested content included the 'list of document submission requests' made by the National Assembly office to the Ministry and the 'vaccination status and number of times' of children who died from child abuse in 2020.

The Ministry refused, stating that "personal information such as names and resident registration numbers are included." When A's objection to disclose the information excluding personal data was also rejected, A filed an administrative lawsuit.

During the trial, the Ministry argued that the 'list of document submission requests' was merely a material for cooperation requests between public institutions and that it was difficult to see it as infringing on the public's right to know. They also claimed that disclosing it to A, who had filed multiple complaints, could significantly disrupt administrative work.

The court stated, "There is insufficient reason to believe that disclosing the documents would likely cause significant disruption to the work of related agencies due to multiple complaints in the future," and pointed out that "the decision not to disclose the 'list of document submission requests' is illegal."

However, the court found that the non-disclosure of the 'vaccination status and number of times' document was appropriate. This was because the document mostly consisted of personal information, and A had already obtained similar data through other information disclosure requests.

The court added, "The plaintiff received from the defendant in May 2022 'data related to infant and toddler health checkups and vaccination status of children who died from abuse in the past five years submitted upon the request of the National Assembly office,'" and "since the information is mostly included in the data the plaintiff already received from the defendant last May, it is difficult to see that the plaintiff's rights are infringed even if the 'vaccination status and number of times' document is withheld."

Meanwhile, A has appealed the first trial ruling, which only partially accepted their claims.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.