China's Ministry of Justice has been sued by twenty national judicial examination candidates for alleged manipulation of test results, Beijing Morning Post reported Wednesday.

The candidates, who all failed in the 2006 national judicial test, said the results of certain number of candidates were "unusually" high, especially for the part of subjective questions.

They demanded a re-scoring of the national test and said that the results already published should be ruled invalid.

The national judicial exam was a prerequisite for Chinese seeking to become judges, prosecutors or lawyers. The test consists of four parts, among which three are objective questions and one is subjective questions like case analysis.

The total score of the test was 600, with each part accounting for 150. Those who can get at least 360 pass the test.

Zhou Xin, one of the 20 candidates, said their investigation showed that among 3,353 candidates in three provinces who have passed the test, 1,581 passed the first three parts with a minimum average score of 90 for each part, but their marks on the fourth only averaged at 89.

In contrast, the remaining 1,772 candidates, whose average score for each of the first three parts was below 90, got 101 on the fourth on average.

"Many of the candidates, who passed the test, cannot even get a passing score in the first three parts. Therefore, we have to suspect that the Ministry of Justice raised their scores on the fourth parts," Zhou said.

"Anyone who has taken the test knows that the fourth part is the most difficult one. Those who got excellent scores on the first three parts couldn't have high scores on the fourth, let alone those who did poorly on the first three parts," Zhou was quoted as saying.

Zhou got 358 at the test. She got an average of 96.6 for the first three parts, but only 68 for the fourth.

Zhou said they hope the Second Intermediate People's Court of Beijing will put their case on file for investigation. But if not, they will continue to sue the ministry through other ways.

Sources with the National Judicial Examination Center of the Ministry of Justice said the national test is conducted in an open, fair and just way.

The ministry is considering holding a press briefing on the issue, the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.

China launched the annual national judicial exam in 2002, and it's becoming increasingly influential. The average passing rate stands at about 10 percent. The 2006 national judicial test took place in September with over 280,000 candidates.

Source: Xinhua