MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Monday said it will hear on October 26, actor Imran Khan Pal’s petition against a ‘leave India notice’ issued by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer, (FRRO), Mumbai, to him on October 14, four days after a protest where he was detained. The notice requires him to leave the country, as a US national, by October 28.The HC asked the actor to also make State a party.Senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond for the actor mentioned the matter for urgent hearing. He said, “ this is a petition where a person who has been residing in India since he was 2 years old, is asked to leave without notice, without any hearing, without reasons…”.The actor has no criminal antecedents, Dhond said to a query. He said the petition mentions that he has no criminal record and no antecedents.The Chief Justice led bench before which the matter was mentioned asked if all parties were served a copy of the petition. Dhond said it was. The Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for the Centre and FRRO, a central authority under the Bureau of Immigration said he received a copy of the petition “10 minutes ago.”Dhond sought a hearing the day after. Singh said it can be heard on October 26.Dhond said since the actor has been asked to leave by October 28 it would be cutting it too close. However, Singh said, “we will come prepared to argue the matter.”The actor, almost 44, had filed the petition on Saturday challenging the notice as “arbitrary, unreasoned and wholly misconceived’’ and against principles of natural justice.The notice flouts his fundamental rights to equality under Article 14 and to life under article 21 of the Indian constitution, his lawyers contended.On Saturday the actor also was issued a fresh notice this time a show cause notice on why his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status should not be cancelled by invoking a provision under the Citizenship Act that says for any action violatingArticles 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, the petition argued.The FRRO, 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.His petition says , Merely …mechanically reproducing the words of a statutory provision is not sufficient in law and cannot be countenanced” It take a ground that the actor “who has lived in India for forty-two years, is apparently sought to be expelled solely because an FIR has been registered. The FIR is at the stage of investigation.The offences alleged under Sections 223, 126(2), 189(2), 189(3) and 189(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 are all bailable, and none carries a punishment exceeding two years. No charge-sheet has been filed, no court has taken cognizance, and no charge has been framed.Even if a charge-sheet were to befiled, the Court may decline to take cognizance. If it takes cognizance, the Petitioner may be discharged. If charges are framed, he may be acquitted.To expel the Petitioner at the very threshold of that process is to visit the ultimate consequence upon a mere allegation and to condemn him, in effect, on the mere recording by the police of an intimation of the commission of an offence.”The urgent interim relief the actor will argue for next Monday is a stay of the notice and final relief is to quash and set it aside.
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