The Bombay High Court will hear on October 26 a petition filed by actor and US citizen Imran Khan challenging a police notice ordering him to leave India by October 28 over his alleged presence at a protest against the Chief Election Commissioner.
Khan has requested that the notice be cancelled and its implementation suspended while his petition is being heard. He has also asked the court to prevent authorities from taking coercive action against him, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond, representing Khan, mentioned the petition before a bench comprising Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna on Monday, seeking an urgent hearing.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Union government, requested more time, saying he had received a copy of the petition only on Monday morning. The court subsequently fixed October 26 for the hearing.
Dhond pressed for an earlier date, highlighting that Khan had been directed to leave India by October 28. The bench asked whether the actor faced any other criminal cases, to which Dhond replied that he did not.
“He has no criminal antecedents and no case filed or pending against him. He has been living in India since he was two years old. He did not even attend any protest. He had reached halfway when he was detained by the police and then let go,” Dhond said, according to PTI.
The court maintained that October 26 would be an appropriate date for the hearing and instructed Khan to include the Maharashtra government as a respondent in the petition.
The 43-year-old actor was briefly detained during a demonstration connected to demands for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation. In his petition, Khan maintained that he had not participated in any gathering and had no links with the protest organisers.
Khan approached the High Court on October 17. His lawyer, Zulfiquar Memon, said the actor had also received a show-cause notice from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office asking him to explain why his Overseas Citizen of India status should not be withdrawn.
In the petition filed through advocate Memon and MZM Legal, Khan described the Mumbai Police notice as “illegal, arbitrary, perverse and drastic”. It alleged that the notice demonstrated a clear failure to apply due consideration and amounted to the arbitrary targeting of Khan because of his public profile.
The petition argued that the notice was disproportionate and, if enforced, would undermine the principles of natural justice that authorities are required to uphold.
Khan was briefly detained during the October 10 demonstration at Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan. The protest was organised in solidarity with demonstrations by the Cockroach Janta Party in Delhi, which demanded Kumar’s resignation over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) issue.
The actor asserted that he had no association, affiliation or connection with any organisation or institution involved in organising the protest against the Chief Election Commissioner.
According to PTI, police issued the departure order after authorities invoked Sections 7(2)(C) and 29 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act. These provisions empower the government to restrict the movement of foreign nationals and direct them to leave India.
