'Arbitrary, unreasonable’: Actor Imran Khan moves HC to challenge 'leave India' notice

MUMBAI: Actor Imran Khan Pal, around 44, filed a petition before the Bombay high court on Saturday to challenge a 'leave India' notice issued to him by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), Mumbai to leave India by October 28. His petition described the notice as “arbitrary, unreasoned and wholly misconceived’’ and against principles of natural justice as it was issued sans any hearing to him and flouts his fundamental rights to equality under Article 14 and to life under article 21 of the Indian constitution. The notice gave him 2 weeks to leave.

Khan said he has been in India since he was 2 years old. He e-filed his petition on Saturday, and on the same day FRRO sent him a fresh notice this time a show cause notice why he should not be acted against under the law governing foreigners and the OCIs. Of the October 14 original notice, which he challenged, his petition says it is a “punitive executive action’’ where he is made a “scapegoat’’ and the notice appears to be for “extraneous’’ reasons to “stifle perceived dissent.’’ The plea which will be mentioned likely next Monday. Articles 14 and 21 are constitutional guarantees available to even foreigners in India, it underscored.

He was given no reasons nor any reasonable opportunity to be heard and the notice was issued directly, Khan says in his petition. The FRRO, an officer under the Bureau of Immigration, had within four days of a protest in Mumbai against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, where the actor was present, invoked the Immigration and Foreigners Act (IFA) 2025 to issue him the departure notice on October 14. The notice is based on “purported contravention of uncited provisions of the IFA and the Rules and Orders’’ under it, the petition states.

The Petition says Khan has no criminal antecedents. Seeking urgent intervention of the HC to stay the notice, the petition filed through MZM Legal, says its potential enforcement would be a “mockery of the principles of natural justice and the Constitution of India’’ . The Oct 14 'leave India' notice is completely silent on any instances of the contravention in question; any underlying order or data forming the basis for issuance of the order or even any Security Report .

The “LIN is not a Bona Fide exercise of statutory authority, but a manifestly arbitrary, high-handed and grossly disproportionate abuse of power, vitiated by complete non-application of mind. It seeks to single out the Petitioner as a convenient scapegoat and make an example of him in furtherance of extraneous personal agendas with which he has no connection, whether to appease public opinion or to stifle perceived dissent,’’ the petition says “Such punitive executive action cannot be permitted to place’’ his “constitutional guarantees in abeyance’’ or “extinguish rights that may be curtailed only… through a fair, just and reasonable procedure.” The notice doesn’t disclose statutory contravention or the semblance of any due process, Khan’s petition adds.

Khan said he “no association, affiliation or connection whatsoever with any organization or institution involved in organizing or participating in the protest against the incumbent chief election commissioner in Mumbai’’. His petition says the notice is a disproportionate and dastic action, not factoring his rights as an OCI and not looking at complete facts and deserves to be quashed.