‘Arbitrary, hasty’: Imran Khan challenges leave India notice in Bombay high court

The petition is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing on Monday before a division bench of chief justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and justice Advait Sethna

US-born actor Imran Khan, 43, filed a petition before the Bombay High Court (HC) on Saturday challenging the leave India notice (LIN) issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Mumbai, calling it arbitrary and issued in haste. The petition comes two days after the FRRO ordered him to leave the country by October 28 for demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s ouster during a demonstration in the city on October 10.

The petition comes two days after the FRRO ordered Imran Khan to leave the country by October 28 for demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s ouster during a demonstration in the city on October 10. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The petition is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing on Monday before a division bench of chief justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and justice Advait Sethna.

In his petition, filed through MZM Legal, the actor contended that he had not breached any provision of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 or the Citizenship Act, which governs his rights and duties as an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) and neither does the LIN cite any specific breach.

“The petitioner has resided peacefully in India since the age of two, has deep-rooted familial, marital, educational and professional ties to the country, and has no criminal antecedents,” his petition stated. “By disregarding these material facts, the LIN reflects non-application of mind and the arbitrary targeting of the petitioner as a public figure.”

On October 10, police detained the actor, his partner Lekha Washington, mother Nuzhat, cousin Zayn Marie, and several other protesters, at the August Kranti Maidan after they joined activist Tushar Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson) in supporting the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) New Delhi-led campaign for the CEC’s resignation.

After police rounded up hundreds of protesters, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya sought action against Khan for participating in a political activity despite being a foreign national, which led the FRRO to issue the LIN to Khan on October 15.

Challenging the communication, the actor maintained that there was no gathering or protests when he reached the spot and that he did not enter the protest site, breaching the barricades set up by the police. He added that the notice was issued without considering that he was apprehended after the media surrounded him as he returned to his vehicle.

“The extraordinary haste with which the LIN has been issued -- within five days of the complaint was said to have been made -- strongly indicates that it was issued not upon an independent, objective and lawful assessment, but as a purely responsive measure and/or reaction and/or for extraneous reasons,” stated the petition.

It also stated that the LIN conspicuously ignores and makes no reference to the actor’s OCI status, and proceeds to inflict the drastic consequence of expulsion without considering the complete and undisputed facts. The petition called the notice “ex-facie arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional and legally unsustainable”, urging the court to strike it down.

The actor has also invoked provisions of the Citizenship Act related to OCI cardholders supporting his claims, arguing that an OCI cardholder is not an ordinary foreigner and belongs to a different statutory class. “His right to enter and remain in India flows from, and/ or is under, a different legal regime and should properly be ended only under it,” he stated in his petition, adding that, “The requirement of specified grounds (specified under Section 7D of the Citizenship Act) and a hearing are therefore imperative.”

Khan has also claimed that the action was grossly disproportionate and issued without considering that he has been a resident of India for over four decades.

He said the only allegation against him was a brief presence near the site from which he was turned away immediately after the police told him that the ground was closed.

“For this, he is sought to be uprooted from India altogether, without any lesser measure even being considered. Such action fails the triple test of proportionality laid down and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, time and again,” his petition added.

Show cause notice

Meanwhile, shortly after filing the petition, Khan received a show cause notice from the FRRO, asking him why his OCI registration should not be cancelled. “Not only is the show cause notice contradictory to the same FRRO’s previous LIN, it just appears to be an attempt to correct the legal infirmity previously committed,” Khan’s lawyers, MZM Legal said in a press statement.