Bollywood actor Imran Khan on Saturday moved the Bombay High Court challenging a notice issued by the Mumbai Police directing him to leave India by October 28, setting up a high-stakes legal battle over whether an Overseas Citizen of India cardholder can be ordered out of the country for participating in a political protest.
The 43-year-old actor, a US citizen and OCI cardholder, filed the petition through his lawyer Zulfiquar Memon and the law firm MZM Legal, describing the police notice as "illegal, arbitrary, perverse and drastic." In his plea, Khan sought the quashing of the notice, an interim stay on its operation while the petition is pending, and a restraint on the authorities from taking any coercive steps against him.
The notice follows Khan's brief detention on October 10, when he joined a demonstration at Mumbai's August Kranti Maidan held in solidarity with a protest by the Cockroach Janta Party in Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Khan attended the Mumbai protest with his partner Lekha Washington and his cousin Zayne Marie Khan; police detained all three before releasing them.
Khan later shared a photograph of the three inside a police van, joking, "Apparently I'm going for a drive."
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya subsequently lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that Khan had violated the rules by taking part in the demonstration despite holding American citizenship.
The complaint was forwarded to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, which issued a departure order invoking Section 7(2)(C) and Section 29 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act — provisions that empower the government to restrict the movement of foreign nationals and enforce their mandatory removal.
Adding a new twist on Saturday, Khan's lawyer said the actor had also received a show-cause notice from the FRRO asking why his OCI status should not be cancelled. Memon argued that this notice should have been issued before the Mumbai Police's "abrupt and arbitrary" departure order, and the High Court petition calls the police action a case of "patent non-application of mind and the arbitrary targeting" of Khan as a public figure.
"Not only is the notice manifestly disproportionate, if implemented, it would reduce the very principles of natural justice that the authorities are duty-bound to uphold, to nothing but a dead letter," the petition said, noting that the order was issued without disclosing reasons, supporting material or any specific statutory contravention, and without giving Khan an opportunity to respond.
The petition is expected to be mentioned for an urgent hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna.
Even as the legal challenge took shape, senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani mounted a forceful public defence of the notice in an interview with NDTV. "If you want to demonstrate against India, go back to your chosen country, the United States of America," Jethmalani said, referring to Khan's participation in the October 10 protest seeking the CEC's resignation.
"You don't have an allegiance to a country, you are an OCI. You may have some feelings for the country, but you are an OCI, you haven't accepted the citizenship of this country. It's very clear, you get a passport and you have a right to vote because you are a citizen of this country," said Jethmalani, a former BJP Rajya Sabha member.
He argued that the permissions granted to OCI cardholders — like those given to tourists or students — come with the condition of obeying the host country's laws. "As an OCI or as a tourist or a student, you get these permissions on the condition that you obey the laws of this country. If you want to go and peacefully demonstrate, you demonstrate against India in America, your chosen country. Who are you to tell us what to do or our government? Then don't go and join sit-ins over here," he said.
The case has sharply divided opinion. Abu Azmi, chief of the Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra unit, criticised the order. "This is wrong. Imran Khan belongs to this country. Even if he has changed his nationality, he is still connected to this country," Azmi said, arguing that people who move abroad can remain attached to their homeland and describing the decision to force Khan to leave so quickly as too harsh and an attempt to prevent the government's failures from being exposed.
Khan, the nephew of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, was one of Hindi cinema's leading young actors in the late 2000s before stepping away from films. His case has now become the most prominent test of the relatively new Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 — with Section 7 empowering the central government to regulate, restrict or prohibit a foreigner's entry, departure, presence or movement in the country.
Khan's petition makes a central legal claim: that there is no provision under the current law or statutory rules prohibiting an OCI cardholder from participating in a peaceful protest. How the Bombay High Court treats that argument — and whether it stays the October 28 deadline — will be watched closely, not least because the October 10 anti-CEC protests have already produced a string of detentions, court cases and political confrontations in Delhi and Mumbai.
For now, the actor faces a two-front fight: the police departure order in the High Court, and the FRRO's show-cause notice threatening the OCI status that has allowed him to live and work in India.
The controversy has also cast a shadow over Khan's anticipated return to cinema. Reports have suggested that his comeback film, Adhure Hum Adhure Tum, scheduled for release on December 18, could face delays amid the legal turmoil — though no official announcement has been made by the film's makers.
The case sits within a much larger confrontation. The October 10 protests — in Delhi by the Cockroach Janta Party and in solidarity in Mumbai — were part of a sustained Opposition campaign against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, a campaign that has already produced detentions in the capital, duelling court petitions and international attention.
Khan's detention in Mumbai, his "leave India" notice, and now his High Court challenge have made him the most high-profile face of that crackdown's aftermath.
(Reporting based on NDTV, Business Standard and The Siasat Daily.)