A lawyer brought a suit against the Ministry of Railways to Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court, the Beijing News reported on Jan 8.

On Sept 23, 2012, Dong Zhengwei wrote to the ministry, seeking information about the bidding process for the ministry's ticket-selling website 12306.cn.

Dong received an answer from the ministry on Oct 20, but he was not satisfied with it. Five days later, he sent another application for information, but the ministry refused his request on Dec 20.

On Jan 7, Dong brought the lawsuit against the ministry, which, he said, had violated the citizen's rights to know and supervise.