Court Fees in Islamabad, Explained

Court fees in Islamabad Capital Territory are governed by the federal Court Fees Act, 1870, not a provincial schedule, and the rate that matters most in ordinary practice is the ad valorem rate set by the Finance Act, 1993 amendment to Schedule I. 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 Rate

For a suit for recovery of a fixed or liquidated amount -- the most common money-suit scenario -- the court fee is 7.5% of the amount claimed. A suit claiming Rs. 10,00,000 in recovery carries a court fee of Rs. 75,000 at that rate. The minimum court fee payable on any suit is Rs. 15, and the minimum suit valuation recognised is Rs. 200. Family court matters -- dissolution, maintenance, custody, dower -- are treated differently: they carry a fixed Rs. 15 court 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 of Rs. 50. 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.

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.