How to Find and Download a Federal Constitutional Court Judgment Online, Free

Short answer: Every judgment and order the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan publishes is free at fccp.gov.pk/judgements. You can search the full text, filter by judge, type, date and "approved for reporting", and download the PDF. On 20 October 2026 the page held 124 decisions, the oldest uploaded on 18 December 2025.

You do not need a lawyer or a login to read a judgment. We used the page on 20 October 2026 to find, filter and download decisions, and the steps below are what worked for us. Four judgments were uploaded on 19 October 2026 alone.

The Federal Constitutional Court, or FCC, was set up by the Constitution (Twenty-seventh Amendment) Act, 2025. Its Chapter 1A in the Constitution was added by that amendment. Judgments we read note that leave petitions once filed under Article 185(3) now fall under Article 175F(1)(c), so many old Supreme Court cases are decided here.

The judgments page lists every decision with six details

Each row on the page shows the case title, the author judge, the type (judgement or order), whether it is approved for reporting, the upload date and a download button. The newest uploads come first, ten to a page.

The upload date is the one that trips people up. One judgment uploaded on 16 October 2026 was signed on 5 May 2026. Always read the date at the end of the PDF itself.

Six steps find and download a judgment

Open the judgments page, type a word or case number into the text search, narrow it with the filters, press Search, then open the PDF with the download button. Read the first page for the bench and the last page for the result.

1. Go to fccp.gov.pk and open Judgements, or go straight to fccp.gov.pk/judgements.
2. Type a word from the subject into Search Judgement Text, for example "constable", "pension" or a section number.
3. Pick a Type if you want only judgements or only orders.
4. Pick a Judge, or set From Date and To Date to narrow the list.
5. Press Search. Each result shows a short extract with your word in it.
6. Press Download on the right row. Save the PDF with the case number as the file name.

When we searched "constable" on 20 October 2026, the page returned two cases: one from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one from Punjab. The KP case is the one behind our explainer on a police constable job with a minor conviction.

The filters cover judge, type, reporting and date

Four filters sit beside the text search: Type, Judge, Approved for Reporting and a date range. The Judge list named seven judges on 20 October 2026, starting with Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan. Filters can be combined in one search.

The other six judges in the list were Justices Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Aamer Farooq, Ali Baqar Najafi, Muhammad Karim Khan Agha, Rozi Khan Barrech and Syed Arshad Hussain Shah. When we chose Justice Ali Baqar Najafi with Approved for Reporting set to Yes, his reported judgments came up first.

The date filter works on the upload date. Setting both dates to 19 October 2026 returned four decisions. Use it to see what was published in a week, not to find a case decided on a given day.

Read the first and last pages before the middle

The first page names the bench, the case number, the lower court judgment being challenged and the date of hearing. The last page gives the result, the date it was signed and whether it is approved for reporting. The middle carries the reasoning.

Look for the words that decide the outcome. "Leave refused" or "petition dismissed" means the lower court's decision stands. "Converted into appeal and allowed" means the FCC has overturned it. "Set aside" means the earlier order is cancelled.

Many FCC cases came from the Supreme Court, so case numbers vary. "CPLA" is a civil petition for leave to appeal, and "F.C.P.L.A." is the FCC's own numbering. A letter after the number shows the registry: "P" for Peshawar, "L" for Lahore, "K" for Karachi, "Q" for Quetta.

The website copy is for reading, a certified copy is for court

The PDF on the website is fine for reading and research. To file it in another court or office, ask for a certified copy through your lawyer. Hearing dates and daily lists are on the court's cause list, not on the judgments page.

For a pending case, check the FCC cause list for the day it is fixed. For deadlines to appeal or seek review, see the Federal Constitutional Court Rules 2026 time limits.

A judgment published online is not a reason to miss your own limitation date. Time usually runs from the decision or from when you get a copy, depending on the rule, so check that early.

Common questions

Are Federal Constitutional Court judgments free to download?

Yes. The judgments page is free and needs no account. Each decision downloads as a PDF.

Can I search FCC judgments by party name?

The Case Title column shows case numbers, so search the judgment text for a name or subject instead.

What does approved for reporting mean?

The court has cleared the judgment for publication in the law reports. The page lets you filter by it.

Why is the upload date different from the judgment date?

Judgments are often signed first and uploaded later. One uploaded on 16 October 2026 was signed on 5 May 2026.

Where are older Supreme Court judgments?

On the Supreme Court's own website. The FCC page holds only decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked 20 October 2026. We used the Federal Constitutional Court judgments page, its text search for "constable", its judge and reporting filters, and its date filter for 19 October 2026, and we downloaded five judgments. We counted 12 full pages of 10 and a 13th page of 4. We read the court's setting up in the Constitution on Pakistan Code. We did not test the certified copy process.