China's newly built National Grand Theater has been taken to court by a law student for discriminating against job seekers who were not natives of Beijing, according to media reports.

Huang Yuanjian, a graduate student from the Law School of the Central University of Finance and Economics, filed a lawsuit against the National Grand Theater on April 11 this year, according to the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald.

Huang was quoted as saying that the criteria used by the theater in recruitment process do "not conform to the spirit of the Constitution and violate China's Labor Law."

"This is a clear case of discrimination against non-local job applicants," Huang noted.

In the job advertisements it published on March 22 this year, the National Grand Theater made registered residence in Beijing one of the five criteria for all 315 job vacancies.

According to the ad, the theater is a government-sponsored institution directly under the Beijing Municipal government.

But the 2.69 billion yuan (about 350 million US dollars) investment in the theater was covered by the central budget.

The source of the budget as well as the word "national" in its name indicate that the theater belongs to the whole nation instead of Beijing only, Huang said.

As Huang did not apply for a job himself, the court in Beijing Xicheng District has not yet listed the case for hearing because Huang is not a victim of the ad.

"I am under tremendous pressure because of the lawsuit," Huang said, adding that too many people took job discrimination for granted.

Wang Zhenyu, Huang's lawyer, said they would pursue the case even though they might lose.

Designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, the construction of the controversial theater began in December 2001 and was expected to be completed in September this year.