MUMBAI: 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.
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 the fact that he was apprehended after the media surrounded him while he was returning to his vehicle. 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 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.
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.
The petition called the notice “ex-facie arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional and legally unsustainable”, urging the court to strike it down. “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. 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.
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.
