I am getting an error in my old HTML form onsubmit return statement. It was working perfectly fine before but recently the same statement is showing an error. I am attaching the screenshot of the error HTML form return statement error

<form action="index.html" onsubmit = 'return validate();'>

• Error: A 'return' statement can only be used within a function body.*

I have tried removing 'return' but the form gets submitted even if the validate function returns false.

Then I added preventDefault(), but now the form doesn't get submitted or redirected even if the validate function returns true. <form action="index.html" onsubmit = ' preventDefault() validate();'>

JS code

function validate() {
    
    if (em.value.trim() == "" || pas.value.trim() == "") {
        alert("Fields not filled");
        em.style.border = "2px solid red";
        pas.style.border = "2px solid red";

        return false;
    }

    else if (regexp.test(em.value)) {
        er.innerHTML = "VALID!";
        er.style.color = "green";
        return true;
    }
    else {
        er.innerHTML = "INVALID E-MAIL!!"; //!Alert this is important line
        er.style.color = "red";
        em.style.border = "2px solid red";
        return false;
    }

}