PoliticsCourts
Actor Imran Khan to challenge order to leave India in Bombay High Court today
The FRRO told the US citizen and OCI cardholder to leave by 28 October after he joined a Mumbai protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Key points
- The Foreigners Regional Registration Office has told Imran Khan to leave India by 28 October.
- He was detained on 10 October at a protest against the CEC at August Kranti Maidan.
- His plea is expected to be mentioned for urgent hearing on Friday.
Bollywood actor Imran Khan is expected to ask the Bombay High Court on Friday to quash a notice ordering him to leave India, issued after he joined a protest in Mumbai against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has directed Khan to leave the country by 28 October for allegedly violating the Foreigners Act. Khan is a citizen of the United States and holds an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. The card gives a lifelong visa to live in India but does not confer citizenship, voting rights or the right to contest elections, and the notice treats his part in a political demonstration as a breach of the terms on which he lives here.
Khan was among those detained on 10 October at August Kranti Maidan, where protesters had gathered against the CEC. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya then complained to the Gamdevi police station that the actor had broken the Foreigners Act by joining a political morcha. The police forwarded the complaint to the FRRO, which issued the notice.
Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, the Centre can direct a foreigner to “not remain in India or in any specified area therein”.
Khan’s lawyers, Zulfiquar Memon, Parvez Memon and Chirag Naik of MZM Legal LLP, plan to file the petition on Friday and mention it for an urgent hearing. It is likely to come before a bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna. Khan has not commented publicly on the notice.