2023 (4) TMI 974

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....nt petitions have been filed by Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan and Shri Swaminarayan Dwishatabdi Medical & Charitable Trust seeking directions to the Respondent - Ministry of Home Affairs, Union of India to allow the Petitioners to fill and upload Form FC-4 on the Respondent's portal in order to enable them to file the annual returns for the financial year 2019-2020. 3. The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) was amended by the Foreign Contribution Regulation (Amendment) Act, 2020, under which substantial changes were brought. The same was notified with effect from 29th September, 2020. Section 17(1) of the FCRA was amended to provide as follows: "17. (1) Every person who has been granted certif....

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....1st March, 2020 was needed, the details of the SBI bank account could not be given. The submissions of the Petitioners is that the FCRA amendment itself came into effect in September, 2020 and six months extension was also given for the purposes of opening the bank accounts in SBI. Thus, the SBI account opened later could not be filled by them `as of 31st March 2020', which was the requirement as per the Portal. 6. Thus, the Form FC-4 had a technical deficiency as it was asking for the account number in SBI prior to the introduction of the amendment itself. 7. In the present petition, vide order dated 16th August, 2021, notice was issued in this matter and a direction was given to the Respondent that no coercive action shall be taken ....

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....n. The issue is very narrow in nature and relates to the Form FC - 4, which is to be filed by the Petitioners. A perusal of the said form at serial no.7 requires FCRA account to be filled up in the following terms. "7. (a) Details of "FCRA Account" for receipt of foreign contribution (As on 31st March of the year ending): Name of the Bank Branch address (with PIN code) Phone number e-mail IFSC Code Account Number Date of account opening (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) State Bank of India New Delhi Main Branch 11, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-111001.     SBIN0000691     11. The language used in the said form is that the receipt of foreign contribution ....