[en] Lifetime measurements were tried for low-lying Nilsson intrinsic states whith an aim of examining a level scheme of ¹⁷³Ta proposed by previous authors. The half-life of the 165.84 keV 9/2 9/2^-[514] state was 225 ± 15 ns and that of the 35.65 keV 7/2 7/2⁺[404] state was less than 5 ns. Experimental reduced E1 and E2 transition probabilities were deduced and were compared with those for neighbouring odd-A Ta and Lu isotopes. It was found that the experimental reduced transition probability for 35.65 keV E1 transition from the 7/2 7/2⁺[404] stat to the 5/2 5/2^-[541] state was larger by about the order of 10⁵ than those for inverse transitions form the 5/2 1/2^-[541] states to the 7/2 7/2⁺[404] states in the neighbouring isotopes. Also it was recognized that a newly found 166 keV n=2-fold K-forbidden E2 transition from the 9/2 9/2^-[514] state to the 5/2 5/2^-[541] state seemed to be a K-allowed transition because of its great value of the probability. These findings may lead to a contradiction to the assignment of the 5/2 1/2^-[541] state in ¹⁷³Ta. (orig.)