The judgment of the court below is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Changwon District Court Panel Division.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

1. The lower court found Defendant B guilty of all the charges of this case against the Defendants on the ground that, while it was well known that the notification of the return of the qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland on the ground that the land in this case is not farmland is not legally permitted, Defendant B’s request for return to the effect that it is not farmland under the Farmland Act upon the application of the qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland on the instant land was not farmland, and Defendant A conspired with Defendant A by accepting the request from Defendant B, and Defendant A conspired to the end by abusing official authority over the affairs related to the issuance of the qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland on June 2011, Defendant A’s abuse of official authority over the affairs related to the issuance of the qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland to the purport that the instant land is not farmland so that the instant land may not be farmland, and it can be sufficiently recognized that Defendant A instructed L to demand return of the said land to the effect that the instant land was not farmland for which he did not have any duty

2. However, it is difficult to accept the above determination by the court below for the following reasons.

The main sentence of Article 8(1) of the Farmland Act provides that a person who intends to acquire farmland shall obtain a qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland from the head of Si/Gun/Gu having jurisdiction over the location of farmland, and the head of Eup/Myeon/Dong having jurisdiction over the issuance of the qualification certificate for acquisition of farmland (amended by the Ordinance of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries No. 42, Jul. 18, 2012; hereinafter “former Guidelines for Examination”) shall provide that the applicant shall notify the applicant in writing of the reasons for non-issuance of the qualification certificate when the applicant fails to meet the requirements for issuance of the qualification certificate in accordance with Article 9(2).