The ruling came after a group of street vendors lodged a petition claiming their basic rights were violated when they were forced to give DNA samples to the prosecution on court warrants and were denied any chance to refuse.

They were indicted for trespassing on private property and obstructing business while staging a protest against the establishment of a large shopping mall near the area where they had run their street stalls. They were convicted of the charges in October 2015.

The Constitutional Court ruled it unfair as the law "does not stipulate the procedure required for a judge to ascertain whether the subject has agreed to give his or her DNA."

That potentially allows law enforcement to keep a record of the person's DNA in a database without his or her consent and use it for future investigations, and it infringes the person's right to access the courts, the court said. (Yonhap)