The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling ordering a law school not to disqualify an applicant refusing to comply with an interview date set by the school for religious reasons.

The applicant, surnamed Lim, started the administrative suit after Chonnam National University Law School, located in the southwestern city of Gwangju, disqualified his admission application years ago following his refusal to be interviewed on a day he regards as the Sabbath.

Lim passed the school’s document screening process in October 2020 and was asked to attend an interview on Saturday morning.

He asked the school to change the schedule to after sunset on Saturday, saying he couldn’t attend the interview because he is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which observes the Sabbath from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. But the school did not grant his request and disqualified him after he did not appear for the interview.

Lim lost the first trial, but an appeals court overturned the decision an
d ordered the school to cancel his disqualification.

The Supreme Court also approved the appeals court’s decision, saying the illegality of discriminatory treatment by the head of a national university is recognized more broadly and the school has an obligation to take active measures to make sure Seventh-day Adventists are not disadvantaged in the application process.

The top court also noted that even if the interview schedule had been changed, the resulting inconvenience to the public or third parties would be significantly less than the disadvantage suffered by the plaintiff.

Source: Yonhap News Agency