Court rules for Taiwanese man seeking removal of names of spouse and parents from ID card

台灣男子要求刪除身份證上配偶和父母姓名，法院判准

The court also ruled that too much personal information on ID cards intrudes upon privacy


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei High Administrative Court recently ruled for a man who had filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the names of his spouse and parents from his new National Identification Card.

According to the court’s sentencing document, a man surnamed Chen (陳) went to Taipei City’s Wenshan District Household Registration Office in January last year to apply for a new ID card, and requested that the names of his spouse and parents, place of birth, military status, and photo not be included on his new ID card, CNA reported.

The household registration office denied Chen’s application, stating that the application was contrary to the regulations governing management of national ID cards. Unwilling to accept the office’s argument, Chen appealed to the Taipei City Government, but his appeal was rejected.

Chen eventually took his case to the Taipei High Administrative Court. The court ruled for Chen, determining that the ID card management regulations cited by the household registration office to require the listing of the names of the cardholder’s spouse and parents as well as military status infringe upon the spirit of Article 51 of the Household Registration Act.

Item 1 of the article states, “A National ID Card represents one person's identity, and is effective throughout the country.” The court also ruled that too much personal information on an ID card intrudes upon privacy, is against the proportionality principle, and should be inapplicable, per CNA.

The court therefore ruled that the household registration office should approve Chen’s request not to include the names of his spouse and parents as well as his military status on his new ID card.

However, Chen’s request not to print other information such as his date of birth, photo, sex, place of birth, and household address on his ID card was denied by the court. The court held that these items of information are within the authorization of the Household Registration Act and not against the proportionality principle, and should be printed on the ID card, per CNA.