How a Disciplinary Case Is Heard
Understanding a disciplinary appeal in military service begins with the rule governing the hearing of the disciplinary case: it is heard under the procedure established by the General Administrative Code of Georgia and the Defence Code, save where an international treaty provides otherwise. A serviceman's disciplinary dispute thus rests on two legal layers — the general administrative procedure and the special military-service norms.
An important guarantee concerns the serviceman's position: a serviceman about whom a suspicion of committing a disciplinary offence has been expressed is obliged to facilitate the hearing of the disciplinary case, but this obligation does not include confessing or giving explanations against himself. In other words, the duty to cooperate does not deprive the person of the right of defence.
Commencement of Disciplinary Proceedings
The administrative proceedings connected with imposing disciplinary liability commence with the drawing up of a disciplinary protocol. The protocol is the opening document of the proceedings, and precisely its content and formal legality stand at the centre of an appeal when the serviceman seeks to challenge the matter.
In studying the case it is important to distinguish the two tracks the law has embedded in the disciplinary council's functions: one track concerns dismissal from service — the council then examines the draft individual administrative-legal act on dismissal together with the materials of the proceedings and submits a recommendation to the empowered official; the other track is review — the examination, on the serviceman's application, of the lawfulness of the liability imposed (other than dismissal), in which a recommendation is submitted to the Minister. Confusing these two tracks is a frequent practical error that produces a misconceived appeal.
The Disciplinary Council
The organ conducting disciplinary proceedings is the disciplinary council. It examines the draft individual administrative-legal act on the serviceman's dismissal from service together with the materials of the administrative proceedings, and also the serviceman's application for examining the lawfulness of the disciplinary liability imposed on him (except dismissal) — the latter proceedings being styled a review of disciplinary liability.
The council's powers are specific: it may examine the disciplinary case and/or adopt a reasoned decision on the additional investigation of circumstances; in a dismissal case it submits a recommendation to the official empowered to impose liability; in a review case it submits a recommendation to the Minister concerning the decision defined by law. The number, territorial jurisdiction and composition of disciplinary councils are determined by a normative act of the Minister — a delegation that ties structural disputes about the councils directly to the Minister's acts.