Access to information about the work and budget of a municipal animal shelter

Lubov Guseva v. Mayor of Vidin
Court case № 34/2003 of the Regional court of Vidin

On Jan 21.2003 Lubov Guseva, a member of the board of the Vidin Animal Пrotection Аssociation filed an information request to the mayor of Vidin. Lubov Guseva requested information about the number of stray dogs caught and held in the municipal animal shelters during 2001-2002, the number of dogs put down through euthanasia, the funds of the municipal budget spend for medications, and other expences connetted with the work of the municipal animal shelter.

On Feb. 02, 2003 the requestor received a decision № 3-02-1170/14.02.2003, by which the mayor of Vidin refused to disclose the requested information, becuase the documents contained information concerning third parties, whose explicit concent for disclosure had not been received (The exemption of Art. 37, para.1 item 2 of the Access to Public Information Act).

After receiving the decision of the mayor and after consulting the lawyers of AIP the requestor filed an appeal against the refusal to the Regional court of Vidin.

With decision № 98 from June 06, 2003 the Regional court of Vidin reversed the decsion of the mayor as contrary to the law and obliged him to disclose the requested information, without revealing facts about the third parties.

The decision of the regional court was appealed by the respondent before the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). The first hearing on SAC court case № 8751/2003 will be on Jan. 27, 2004.