Top court unveils guideline to further streamline online judicial auctions

The Supreme People's Court, China's top court, issued a guideline on Wednesday to further streamline procedures of online judicial auctions and regulate activities of staff members.

The 12-article guideline on online judicial auction clarifies that courts should fully investigate properties ready to be auctioned, especially real estates, vehicles, food, and equities.

In the case of real estate property, courts are required to obtain the registration information of a house or apartment and to go to the site to inspect its indoor and outdoor conditions, according to the guideline.

Meanwhile, courts also need to learn about the ownership and use of the house or apartment, as well as information such as its dwelling size, transaction tax items and rates and existing problems, it said.

For motor vehicles, the guideline urges courts to check the registration information, emission standards, mileage, and violations before handling judicial auctions.

For food that needs to be auctioned, courts at all levels should investigate whether it is expired, corrupt or prohibited to sell, so as to prevent fake and shoddy products from flowing into the market through online judicial auction and damaging the health and life safety of the people, it added.

In 2017, the top court launched a system to conduct judicial auctions online, which was also regarded as the country's big reform and innovation in the judiciary field.

Data released by the top court showed on Wednesday that by the end of October, courts across the country had conducted auctions on the internet more than 9.73 million times, with a transaction value of 2.94 trillion yuan ($406 billion).

"Compared with traditional auctions, online judicial auction conforms to the trend of the times and development of technologies, and it's more open, just, transparent and convenient, greatly improving the transaction and premium rates and reducing the auction costs," the top court said.

At the same time, the online judicial auction is also conducive to fighting judicial corruption and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of litigants, it added.