The Delhi High Court on Monday has issued notice in a plea filed by NGO Shree Swaminarayan Mandir seeking directions to the Centre to allow it to fill and upload the Form FC-04 on the government portal so as to enable it to file their annual returns for 2019-20, as the same could not be filed earlier due to technical glitch in the portal.
A Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli restrained the Ministry of Home Affairs from taking coercive steps against the petitioners.
The petitioner had place reliance upon W.P (C) 6031/2021 “Arbor Charitable Foundation & Ors v. Union of India” Where a Coordinate Bench of Delhi High Court, in an order dated July 1, 2021, opined: “The citizen cannot be penalized for a discrepancy in the form prescribed by the respondent which has resulted in the form being unable to be submitted even in the case of a law-abiding citizen. In view thereof, till the next date of hearing, the respondent is restrained from taking any coercive action against the petitioner for failure to file the requisite return under the FC-4 form before 30th June, 2021.”
W.P (C) 6031/2021 was very similar to the matter at hand and hence it was connected to the present petition, according to the Courts Order.
The petition avers that the petitioners were unable to file their annual returns for the financial year 2019-20, as mandated under Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 due to technical difficulties in filling Form FC-4 electronically on FCRA portal of Ministry of Home Affairs.
The petition states that Annual Return was ready to be filed by June 30, 2021 but could not be filed due to technical glitches on the FCRA website, any coercive action taken against the petitioner would amount penalizing them for not performing an impossible task.
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The petition further states that they had filled form FC-4 and when it was proceeding to save the donor wise entries, the same were shown as saved but the details were not getting saved in the FCRA portal. The FCRA portal was taking a lot of time to save the data filed, which resulted in the petitioner being logged out multiple times, without saving any data. One time, the petitioner was able to fill up and save the date, but when it clicked on the submit button, the petitioner was logged out. In another instance, the portal read “you are not required to file annual return for the current block year”.
The petitioner filed two representations with the Ministry of Home Affairs, but no response was received. The petition was filed through Advocate Rajat Bhatia. The next date for hearing is September 3.