user/group permissions

["S.Sriram" <97co147@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hello guys,
consider the below case:
 
 file : temp
 perm: ----rwx---
 owner: myself
 group: myself

 i.e a file temp is owned by me and i'm the only member in the group
"myself". if i try to open the file it gives an error that permission
denied for opening the  file.
though the file cannot be opened based on the user permissions, it has to
be opened due to the rwx permissions for the group.

this is because linux kernel makes accessibility test based only on the
user permissions if the user is the owner of the file and never considers
the group permissions in that case.

is this not a buggy feature......or is there any reason behind this
design.
please comment.

sriram,
rec,surat.