Filing of income tax return under section 119(2)(b) of the i

Can Income Tax return for assessment year 2012-13 and 2013-14 be filed online when assessee has received approval from the principal CIT and the option for filing online under above section starts from assessment year 2015-16 .The income Tax department refused to accept the manual return for the above assessment years saying that the refund can be claimed only on online filing. can anyone suggest the remedy?