What Article 173³ is and whom it may concern
Article 173³ of the Georgian Administrative Offences Code provides for liability for failure to comply with a lawful demand of a temporary investigative commission of the Parliament of Georgia. The norm addresses a wide circle: the recipient of a demand may be a natural or a legal person — an official, a company or an organisation — to whom the commission turns within the framework of an inquiry. The text of the article defines no closed circle of persons, and that circumstance too is part of the assessment of a case.
The article is built on two conditions of classification: the demand must come from a temporary investigative commission, and it must be lawful. Both conditions carry their own weight: a demand from another body, or an unlawful demand, is not punishable under this article — at least, that is how the wording of the norm plainly reads.
The fine: fifty times the minimum labour remuneration
The sanction is written as follows: a fine of fifty minimum amounts of labour remuneration. Note — not a single exact figure in lari appears in the article. That is deliberate: the price of the fine is pegged to the minimum labour remuneration, and its concrete value in lari depends on the rules that define that minimum. For that reason this page does not state an amount in lari — and that is a mark of precision, not a defect.
What this means practically: establishing the real size of the fine in your case requires a calculation, made under the norms in force at the material time. If a concrete figure is stated in the penalty document, verifying the basis of its calculation is a regular checkpoint of the case.
What Article 173³ does not say
The article is a single sentence: the act and the sanction. It does not say which body issues the fine decision, what deadlines apply to payment and to challenging it, in what form a demand must be made, or which cases count as complied with. These questions are governed by the general norms of the Code, by the rules of Parliament and by the documents of the case. In practice, it is the assessment of the lawfulness of the demand that becomes the central issue of this category of cases.
One more detail: the article does not describe the content of a demand — it may be the submission of documents, the provision of information or another act. What counted as capable of performance emerges from the very text of the demand, which is therefore the central document of the case, and every word of it matters. The pegging of the sanction to fifty minimum units of labour remuneration, in turn, means that the fine is substantial: in cases under this article every detail — from the lawfulness of the demand to the arithmetic of the calculation — is reflected in money.
From the demand to the fine: how to behave
If you have received a demand from the commission, the first task is to examine its form: in whose name it is issued, in what form, with what content, and on what basis of competence. A demand must be lawful both in form and in substance — and these two dimensions are checked separately. In parallel, begin documenting performance: which step is possible immediately, which needs time, and what cannot be done at all.
If you cannot perform the demand, or cannot perform it perfectly, do not leave that fact in silence: explain the reason to the commission in writing and offer what you can do. Such a written position later, at the fine stage, is exactly the material by which the case is measured. And if a fine decision already exists, verify two things in its text: which demand was held unfulfilled, and how the amount was calculated — both points are open to verification.
How a lawyer helps and what to bring
A lawyer will examine whether the demand really was issued by a temporary investigative commission and within its competence; whether the demand was lawful in form and substance; what could and should have been performed; and whether the rules for adopting the decision were observed. For a consultation, bring:
- the commission's demand and the correspondence connected with it;
- the fine decision, with the basis of the calculation of the amount;
- your identity document or the company's registration documents;
- evidence of the steps you took to comply with the demand.