Dear Rohan,
It pains me to hear about your misfortune, but having worked in a government environment I can confirm that the ACTUAL receipt date is the day when the document is assigned a number and the relevant information is entered into the database. As far as I understand CIO people collect application packages from couriers and store them until an officer becomes available to OPEN the package, check if your application is complete and then process the fee. It is the time the application receives a number and is hence registered. So I afraid it would be a hard time arguing with their decision.
It pains me to hear about your misfortune, but having worked in a government environment I can confirm that the ACTUAL receipt date is the day when the document is assigned a number and the relevant information is entered into the database. As far as I understand CIO people collect application packages from couriers and store them until an officer becomes available to OPEN the package, check if your application is complete and then process the fee. It is the time the application receives a number and is hence registered. So I afraid it would be a hard time arguing with their decision.