Chief Justice Xiao Yang said Wednesday that the Supreme People's
Court is working to amend a controversial rule which is accused of
different compensation for urban and rural residents in one
accident.
If everything goes on smoothly, the amendment will be made
public after the annual session of the top legislature, or National
People's Congress (NPC), which started on March 5 and will end on
March 16, Xiao said on the sidelines of the NPC session.
Issued by the supreme court in 2003, the interpretations on
personal injury cases stipulate that death compensation should be
20 times the average annual disposable income of urban residents of
the previous year, or 20 times the average annual per capita net
income of rural residents.
The average annual disposable income of urban residents stood at
11,759 yuan in 2006 while the average annual per capita net income
of rural residents 3,587 yuan, resulting a wide gap of 160, 000
yuan in compensation if a pair of urban and rural residents died at
the same time in an accident.
The rule has sparked hot debates as critics warned "the lives of
China's urban residents are worth much more than those of rural
residents", or "different prices for lives" in short. Such mishaps
did happen in real life.
The supreme court conducted a lot of investigations and
researches on the rule last year, and held discussions with legal
experts, scholars and the masses to seek their opinions.
However, "the result is that people have different ideas on the
issue," Xiao said.
The chief justice did not elaborate more.
An NPC deputy named Liu Aiping had submitted a motion to the top
legislature to urge judicial departments to revoke the current
rule.
(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)