Three failed civil servant candidates put the governmental human resources department on trial Tuesday in south China's Guangdong Province, alleging their failure a result of "gene discrimination."

The three people, who preferred to be called Xiao Zhou, Xiao Xie and Xiao Tang for the privacy reason, passed written examinations and interviews for civil servant posts in Foshan City in April 2009, but were eventually rejected after they were found to carry a gene that causes Mediterranean Anemia, they said in the plaint.

Another 28 candidates were also eliminated for the same reason, according to a report by the China National Radio.

The lawsuit has since been dubbed as China's first case on "gene discrimination."

The rejection was against China's laws on recruiting civil servants and medical examinations, their lawyer Li Fangping told Xinhua.

"Gene examination is not required in the medical examinations in civil servant recruitment, and the defendant's conduct violated the candidates' privacy," Li said.

"It's certainly typical discrimination, and even worse than that against Hepatitis B, as it's only a problem of gene, which means the candidates are not carriers of virus, and their life and work would not be affected," the lawyer said.

A health standard issued by the government in 2005 said Hepatitis B carriers are eligible for civil service as long as the infection does not progress to the disease stage.

"Whatever I do, I could not change the gene in my body. As long as the discrimination exists, I would be rejected all my life," said Xiao Tang. "I just want a chance for fair competition."

The city's human resources bureau, however, said its rejection was based on the report given by the medical examination institution, which said the three were unqualified.

Experts said Mediterranean Anemia is not rare in Guangdong and it has no obvious symptom if not serious.

One fourth of the gene carriers might become serious sufferers of the disease, who even could not survive their infancy, while another one fourth may live like normal people, according to experts.

The court did not give a verdict Tuesday.