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Constitutional Court of Georgia does not satisfy Constitutional Submission № 684
On July 25, 2025, the Plenum of the Constitutional Court of Georgia did not uphold the Constitutional Submission №684 with regard the constitutionality of Paragraph 2 of Article 197¹ of the Administrative Offenses Code of Georgia and the corresponding Note to the same Article.
According to the disputed provision, failure to appear before the conscription commission with the intention of evading compulsory military service was considered an administrative and was punishable by a fine. Failure to pay the fine within the fixed period resulted in up to 15 days of administrative arrest, as well as the deprivation of the right to arms for a period of up to 3 years. The constitutional submission indicated that, in practice, the disputed norms were applied primarily to insolvent individuals who were unable to pay the fine. Therefore, according to the author of the submission, the disputed provision placed individuals in severe material/financial conditions in a discriminatory position compared to those who had the financial means to pay the imposed fine and thereby avoid administrative penalties.
The Constitutional Court, upon analyzing the applicable legislation and the case law of the general courts, concluded that the scope of the provision challenged in the submission could not be applied to insolvent individuals. In particular, the Court noted that when a person, due to severe material or financial hardship, is objectively incapable of paying the imposed fine, culpability is excluded. Consequently, in the absence of culpability, the elements constituting an administrative offense are not present.
In view of the abovementioned, the Constitutional Court of Georgia, with regard to Paragraph 1 of Article 11 of the Constitution of Georgia, did not find Paragraph 2 of Article 197¹ of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Georgia and the corresponding note thereto to be unconstitutional.
The Subject Matter of the Dispute: The constitutionality of the Paragraph 2 of Article 197¹ of the Administrative Offenses Code of Georgia and the note to the same Article with regard to Paragraph 1 of Article 11 of the Constitution of Georgia.
