What subsoil use without a licence means here
Article 57¹ of the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia addresses one specific act: using subsoil without the appropriate licence. The text does not grade the offence by how long the activity went on or by how much was extracted — the absence of the licence is what defines it. A single episode and a continuing operation therefore fall under the same provision.
In practice the case rarely concerns one person only. The notes to the article speak separately about the person carrying out the transportation and about the owner of the vehicle — someone who may never have been at the extraction site, but whose vehicle was found loaded with solid mineral resources. Which of those roles you occupy changes both your legal position and the documents you will be asked to produce.
What Article 57¹ imposes
The article sets one principal penalty and two further consequences. The fine runs from 2,000 to 2,500 lari, and that range is the frame within which the body examining the case selects the actual amount. Alongside the fine, the article provides for:
- confiscation of the instrument of the offence — the wording is "with or without confiscation", so the measure is available but not mandatory;
- confiscation of the object of the offence, the solid mineral resource, which the article states without any alternative.
That distinction matters: if your equipment was confiscated as well, that is a separate decision the article does not require, and it can be challenged on its own terms rather than as part of the fine. The most recent amendment to the article was made in 2023, so an older wording is not a safe guide to what applies now.
Temporary seizure of the vehicle
Note 1 to the article creates a distinct regime for the situation where the object of the offence is placed on a vehicle. In that case the vehicle is temporarily seized — together with the solid mineral resource loaded on it — until the examination of the administrative offence case is completed, and it is moved to a special protected parking area. The costs of transporting it there and of keeping it there are, on the terms of the note, charged to the offender.
The conditions for release are set out in the same note. The vehicle is returned to its holder (owner) after the relevant decision in the case has entered into legal force, and only where three things are produced: a document confirming payment of the fine, a document confirming compensation of the environmental damage imposed for the unlawful use of subsoil, and the vehicle registration certificate or a power of attorney. Paying the fine alone is therefore not enough — the damage limb is a separate requirement, and it is the one most often missed.
The duty to move the vehicle, and what breaching it costs
Note 2 places a duty on the person carrying out the transportation and/or on the owner of the vehicle. Where an employee of the body empowered to draw up the administrative offence protocol — the body identified in Article 239, part 4 of the Code — makes an oral request, the vehicle loaded with solid mineral resources must be moved to the special protected parking area. If the body (official) examining the case has confiscated the mineral, the same duty extends to placing it at the location indicated.
Failure to comply is assessed separately: under Note 3 it results in a fine in accordance with Article 84, part 3 of the Code. Article 57¹ itself does not state that amount — it has to be read in Article 84. Note too that the request may, on this wording, be oral: the absence of a written order does not by itself mean none was made.
What the dispute is actually about, and where a lawyer changes it
Four questions tend to carry these cases. First, whether what happened was use of subsoil in the sense of the article, and whether the particular work required a licence at all. Second, who the offender is when the extraction, the haulage and the ownership of the vehicle sit with different people. Third, whether confiscation of the instrument is warranted, given that the article does not make it obligatory. Fourth, whether the transport and parking costs charged to the offender have been calculated correctly.
Representation works across two stages. While the case is being examined, the argument is about the qualification of the act, the amount of the fine inside the statutory range, and the scope of confiscation. Once the decision is issued, the task shifts to satisfying the release conditions for the vehicle — including compensation of environmental damage, a requirement that is independent of the fine and that will keep the vehicle in the parking area even after the fine has been paid.
What to bring to the consultation
The completeness of the paperwork directly determines how quickly the vehicle and equipment come back. Bring:
- the administrative offence protocol and the decision issued in the case, in full;
- the vehicle registration certificate, or the power of attorney you rely on;
- the document confirming payment of the fine;
- the document confirming compensation of environmental damage, or the material imposing it;
- documents showing the transport and storage costs at the special protected parking area;
- anything connected to the licence — an application, correspondence, or a contract for the land or for the works.