BEIJING - Judges and other court officials are to be banned from privately meeting litigants of the lawsuits that they are handling, or family members and attorneys, according to a new regulation issued by the country's top court.

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The new regulation also forbids judges and court officials, including retired ones, from helping litigants hand in related documents, or plead or intercede for them, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said on Sunday.

If judges or court officials, while performing their duty, need to give directives on ongoing lawsuits, the suggestions must be in written form and included in the case file for future examination, according to the regulation.

The new rules aim to ensure fair legal decisions by preventing any intervention in lawsuits from inside the courts, the SPC said in a statement released on Sunday afternoon.

"It will help develop the self-discipline of judicial officials and make them more capable of resisting pleading and interceding," the statement said.

The punishments range from warnings to disciplinary actions or even criminal punishments.

Many litigants or their attorneys try to use every social tie they can think of to get in touch with the court or the judges in order to receive some favor during a trail, the SPC said in its statement.

"Colleagues, former classmates, relatives and friends of court leaders or judges can all serve as go-betweens, which seriously disturbs the normal handling of some lawsuits," it said. "To solve the problem, the first step is to improve the self-discipline of our team."

It is the second regulation released by the SPC this month. On Feb 10, the SPC issued a regulation that requires judges who have a spouse or offspring working as a lawyer in the same judicial area to declare a conflict of interest and for one of them to work in another area.

Judicial corruption, particularly from relationships and favors, has caused mounting public concern, especially after former SPC vice-president Huang Songyou was investigated for corruption in 2008.

Huang received a life sentence on Jan 19, 2010, for embezzlement and accepting bribes of more than 3.9 million yuan ($574,000).

The public and any party involved in the lawsuits are invited to report possible violations of the new regulation to court disciplinary authorities at all levels, the SPC said.

Liu Honghui, a member of the Beijing Lawyers Association, said the new regulation is both timely and necessary.

"It's not only beneficial to establishing a fair judicial environment, but can also prevent officials in courts from being swayed by relations," he said.

"The regulation can help provide an equitable stage for lawyers who do their work in the proper way."

But Hong Daode, a criminal procedure law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said the punishments could have been more detailed.

"Based on the released information, it seems that the punishment standards are not clear. In other words, it may be hard to determine what kind of violations will receive education, or warning or disciplinary punishments," he said.