DONGXING Group, a shareholder of bankrupted East Star Air, has filed a lawsuit against China's civil aviation regulator which claimed the regulator was groundless to suspend the carrier's operations in 2009.

The Guangzhou Baiyun District People's Court has accepted the lawsuit. The CAAC Central and Southern Regional Administration decided to halt East Star's operations in March 2009 after receiving a letter from the Wuhan government which suggested the airline's flights be halted.

"It is groundless to suspend East Star's operations only by a letter from the Wuhan government. The suspension led to the bankruptcy of the carrier, so we don't accept the result," said Lan Jianmin, president assistant of Dongxing Group, at a news conference on Monday.

The group's lawyer, Yan Yiming, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China violated the administrative punishment law which states an airline can't be stopped from operations unless it is unable to secure the safety of its flights, Yan said. According to the safety auditing report at the end of 2008, East Star Air achieved 94.6 percent safety in a check of 639 items, he said.

He said the Wuhan government's letter is illegal as a city government has no right to directly manage an airline.