Court Fees in Islamabad, Explained

Court fees in Islamabad Capital Territory are governed by the federal Court Fees Act, 1870, as in force in ICT -- not a provincial schedule. This distinction matters because provinces have amended their own copies of the Act over the years, and those provincial rates do not apply in the federal capital. Getting the figure wrong at filing is a real problem, not a technicality: a deficient court fee can lead to the plaint being returned under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, which costs time on a matter that should already have moved forward.

The Ad Valorem Scale

For a suit for recovery of a fixed or liquidated amount -- the most common money-suit scenario -- the court fee follows a graduated scale set out in Schedule I, Article 1: the percentage effectively payable rises with the amount claimed, but the article's own proviso caps the fee on a plaint or memorandum of appeal, and section 35A of the Act then adjusts ad valorem fees up or down depending on the value band. In practice this means the fee on a high-value suit is nowhere near what a flat-percentage assumption would suggest -- it is capped well below that. Family court matters -- dissolution, maintenance, custody, dower -- are treated differently: they carry a fixed fee rather than an ad valorem one, which keeps the cost of accessing a family court low regardless of the value in dispute.

Fixed Fees for Other Filings

Not every filing is valued ad valorem. A bail application, whether pre-arrest under Section 498 Cr.P.C. or post-arrest under Section 497 Cr.P.C., carries a nominal fixed court fee. Several other filing types -- appeals, revisions, execution applications, writ petitions, and miscellaneous applications within a pending suit -- each have their own fee treatment under the Act's two schedules, some ad valorem and some fixed, depending on what is actually being asked of the court. Succession certificate and probate applications follow their own percentage scale under Schedule I, distinct from the ordinary suit scale.

Where the Calculator Fits

None of this is worth memorising rate by rate. The Court Fee Calculator is built around the ICT-applicable schedule and returns the payable figure for the suit type actually being filed, so the number can be checked before the plaint or petition goes anywhere near the filing counter. For the procedural side of getting a matter filed correctly -- including where court fees and e-stamping sit in the process -- the Court Process Guides walk through the individual filing types step by step.