VietNamNet Bridge - On March 18, the Performing Arts Agency went on trial for revoking license of the Vietnam Sea Queen 2013 pageant. This is one of several lawsuits against a state body in Vietnam.

Contestants of the Vietnam Sea Queen 2013 pageant.

On June 1, 2013, the Performing Arts Agency revoked the license of the Vietnam Sea Queen pageant, which was issued by this agency to the Vietnam Dragon Company. When the license was revoked, the beauty contest was in the semi-finals.

The agency revoked the license for the reasons that the contest organizer made many mistakes in assessing the applications and judging. Subsequently, the organizer sued the Performing Arts Agency to the court of Khanh Hoa province, where the beauty pageant was held.

According to Vietnam Dragon Company, after being licensed to hold the pageant, the company organized many events and activities to prepare for the competition, such as the establishment of the steering committee, the organizing committee, the judges, calling for sponsors, holding a press conference to promote the event...

As part of the Sea Festival 2013, the pageant was held not for profit. The whole income of the program, after deducting legal expenses, would be transferred to the fund for needy patients in Khanh Hoa Province.

According to the organizers, after the preliminary round held in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, the Vietnam Dragon Company completed preparation for the semi-finals scheduled on June 2, 2013 and the finals on June 3-9. However, on May 31, 2013, a member of the organizing board – Mr. Tran Xuan Toan, received a phone call from Mr. Tran Manh Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Khanh Hoa province cum chief organizer of the Vietnam Sea Queen 2013 pageant, inviting him to a meeting.

At the meeting, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism mentioned several shortcomings of the contest organizers. However, the minutes were not signed by the legal representative of the Vietnam Dragon Company and there were no minutes on administrative violations.

The inspection team could not show up a decision on inspection and the inspectors did not inform the Vietnam Dragon Company of the content of the meeting.

June 1, 2013, the head of the Performing Arts Agency issued a decision to withdraw the license of the Vietnam Sea Queen pageant, which was sent to the Vietnam Dragon Company by fax at noon the same day.

According to the Vietnam Dragon Company, this decision is the abuse of powers, which affected the reputation of Khanh Hoa and the overall success of the 2013 Sea Festival, the rights and honor of the contestants and their families, caused serious damage to the reputation and benefits of the company and sponsors. The company said it already spent over VND2 billion ($100,000) in the contest.

According to the Performing Arts Agency, the license was revoked because the organizers violated the rules. Specifically, of 114 contestants participated in the preliminary round, only 59 had registration records. Of the 59 candidates with the registration records, 23 records are not enough. Of the 40 finalists, four contestants did not have personal files, eight others had insufficient records and one had only the application letter.

The organizers could not provide documents related to the qualifier and semi-final rounds of the pageant, the basis for choosing the finalists.

The qualifier round in Hanoi (18/5), Ho Chi Minh City (24/5) and Nha Trang (26/5) took place without the establishment of a judge panel and the issuance of the pageant regulations. The organizers registered to organize the qualifier round in five places but finally, it was only held in three places.

After the preliminary round, the organizers issued a decision to set up a jury on May 28. According to the inspection team, the organizers did not hold the semi-finals in accordance with the original plan that was approved. The number of registered contestants was not enough.

Lawyer Tran Dinh Trien of the Performing Art Agency said that the agency has the right to revoke the license if the organizers break the rules. He said there are evidences that the organizers faked registration records of contestants. He asked the court to dismiss the proposal of the Vietnam Dragon Company and transferred the case to the security agencies for clarification because this case is related to some officials...

Representatives of the defendant and the plaintiff at court.

Mr. Nguyen Phong Quang - Director of the Vietnam Dragon Company said his firm did the right thing in the licensing. He said there are always small changes in organizing tasks for any event and questioned which regulations that the Performing Arts Agency used to withdraw the license?

The company’s lawyer Le Van Tuan said all beauty pageants have shortcomings and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism did not correctly perform regulations on administrative fine. The Ministry did not make the violation minutes as provision.

According to lawyer Tuan, the Performing Arts Agency’s decision is arbitrary and abuse of power. He asked the court to cancel the decision. He also asked the court to consider and handle according to law-- lawyer Trien who said this case was related to a number of officials and Trien’s accusation of the organizers "faking" registration records is not the job of a lawyer, but of the police.

Based on the record, testimony and arguments of the parties, the court said that the Vietnam Sea Queen 2013 is a local beauty contest. There is no provision in the current law that allows the Performing Arts Agency to revoke the license of a local beauty pageant. Moreover, the Performing Arts Agency could not prove that the issuance of the decision to withdraw the license is under the proper procedures under laws.

The court asked the Performing Arts Agency to cancel the license-revoking decision and paid court costs for the Vietnam Dragon Company.

The representative of the Performing Arts Agency said it would lodge an appeal.

Ly Hien Vinh