The court's decision was influenced by the interpretation of FCRA 2010, Section 12(4) and previous case law regarding the timing of bank account openings and filing of returns.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The present petition has been filed by 11 Petitioners seeking permission for submission of returns for the Financial Year 2019-2020 and waiver of penalty. The details of the Petitioners' and the dates on which the SBI bank accounts have been opened are as under:

3. The question as to whether the bank account in SBI could be opened and the returns could be filed as on 31st March, 2020 has been considered by the Court in W.N.S Cares Foundation v. Union of India, 2023:DHC:000391 and Shree Swaminarayan Mandir v. Union of India, 2023:DHC:2678.

4. In the said decisions, the Court has already taken a view that in the online portal for filing of the returns, since the amendment itself for opening of a bank account in SBI Sansad Marg Branch was introduced in September of 2020, the accounts could not have been opened as on March, 2020. Thus, the returns for the year 2019-2020 could not have been reflected along with the SBI bank account number.

5. In W.N.S Cares Foundation (supra) while allowing the foundation to file its returns, the following observations were made by this Court:

"11. The language used in the said form is that the receipt of foreign contribution "as on 31st March of the year ending" has to be provided and the bank account has to be in the SBI, Sansad Marg branch. Since the Petitioner No.1 opened its account in August, 2021 and in any case, as on 31st March, 2020, the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020, had not come into effect, there appears to be some justification in the Petitioners' case.

12. The Petitioner No.1 having opened its FCRA account in August, 2021 is, accordingly, permitted to fill up the said details of its FCRA account in serial no.7 of the Form FC-4 and submit the same.

13. No coercive steps shall be taken against the Petitioners for having opened the FCRA account belatedly, inasmuch as it is the case of the Petitioners is that no foreign contribution has been received by them in the FY 2019-2020 and FY 2020-21.

14. No penalty shall be imposed upon the Petitioners if the returns for FY 2019-2020 and FY 2020-21 are filed within a period of one month. No further orders are called for by filling in the details of the bank account opened in August 2021, in SBI, Sansad Marg branch."

6. Vide judgement dated 18th April, 2023, in Shree Swaminarayan Mandir (supra) and other connected cases, this Court while relying on the decision in W.N.S Cares Foundation (supra) permitted the uploading of annual returns by specifying the account number of the requisite SBI Account which was subsequently opened by the foundations. The relevant portions of the said judgment is extracted as under:

"9. The Court has heard the ld. Counsels for the parties. The short issue is whether the SBI bank account could have been sought for as of 31st March 2020, when the amendment itself came into effect later i.e., in September 2020. It is noticed that the issues raised in this writ petitions are no longer res integra and have already been considered by this Court in various other cases including WNS Cares Foundation and Anr. v. Union of India, W.P.(C) 11360/2021 as also in Helping Hands Jaipur So