About Us

The Discretionary Punishments Organization is a specialized authority hearing the economic, guild, and health violations and in general terms, it is not a new and innovative phenomenon. Such organization has existed since the early ear of Islam to this date in Islamic governments under various titles and concepts. This organization also enjoys a specific position in other well-known law systems of the world in proportion of the corresponding judicial and enforcement organizations.
Upon the victory of Islamic Revolution of Iran and almost as of the commencement of the holy war in Iran, the concept of the discretionary punishments has been founded in specific term to prevent occurrence of such offenses regarding economic issues such as low sale, expensive sale and hoarding, etc. that used to take place due to the critical conditions of the nation. Hence, in early 1983, and further to the request of the then Prime Minister, the government requested Imam Khomeini to decide on the permission for goods pricing by government and control of expensive sale and hoarding in the nation. In consideration of the best interests of the nation and those of the people and due to the corresponding conditions of the nation, Imam Khomeini permitted the government to do so. For this purpose, some commissions licensed by the Ministry of the Interior were established under the title of the discretionary punishments commissions to attend to all violations of economic nature to some extent.
After the end of the holy war and according to the letter written by Imam Khomeini, the government was waived the right of the discretionary punishment and the Expediency Council was assigned to decide in this respect. In accordance with the approval of the Expediency Council on March 14, 1989, two laws under the titles of the “Discretionary Punishments Law” and “Discretionary Punishments Law on Healthcare Affairs” according to which the hearing of the violations of nongovernmental sector was assigned to the Islamic Revolution courts and hearing the violations of the governmental sector was assigned to the commissions licensed by the Ministry of the Interior respectively.  This has continued to the middle of the 1994. 
On October 11, 1994 due to the need of the government control of the economic affairs and further to the necessity of coordination between the pricing and goods and services distribution authorities, and in compliance with the governing rules and regulations, and upon ratification of the Single Article of the Discretionary Punishments Law as amendment on October 11, 1994 by the Expediency Council, all affairs concerning the discretionary punishments of the governmental and nongovernmental sectors such as inspection, supervision, investigation, hearing and issuance of final judgment has been assigned to the government (the executive branch) so that they may embark on taking any act in this respect by virtue of the Discretionary Punishment Law ratified on February 12, 1989, and they still continue their duty as before. Moreover, in order to prevent the ominous phenomenon of traffic, the Law on Control of Traffic of Goods and Foreign Currency was ratified by the Islamic Consultative Assembly on December 2, 2013 based on which a major part of traffic of goods and foreign currency was assigned to the discovering authorities and they still continue performing their duties to this date.