Hong Kong protests: High Court rejects union’s bid to intervene in legal challenge by former city leader CY Leung to identify teachers guilty of misconduct

The High Court has rejected a trade union’s bid to intervene in a judicial challenge from former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, who is calling for authorities to identify teachers found guilty of professional misconduct over the anti-government protests of 2019.

Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming on Tuesday said he appreciated the good intentions of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, which offered to provide real-life examples of how educators were affected when they were identified.

The union’s counsel, Jeffrey Tam Chun-kit, said those teachers received harassment calls and worried about their safety, with some requiring medical or psychiatric attention because of doxxing.

Tam also submitted that the move to identify educators would have a huge impact on the classroom environment, creating a labelling effect that could damage teachers’ careers.

But counsel John Hui Kei-cheung, for the judicial review applicant, 803 Funds, which Leung founded in 2019 to trace demonstrators involved in criminal activities, questioned whether those complaints from teachers about the consequences of identification were substantiated or related to the protests.

The judge also noted the concerns raised by the union were “pretty obvious” and already submitted by the Education Bureau, the putative respondent to the intended judicial review.