Imran Khan Begs Forgiveness, Court Lets Him Stay ... For Now!

Sloganeering at the Maidan, apologies in the courtroom, and a boarding call that only a stay order silenced, says Gajanan Khergamker

Bollywood's famously reclusive Imran Khan, an American citizen carrying an Overseas Citizen of India card, walked into the Bombay High Court on Monday to do what few people with a political cause ever want to do, and offered an unconditional apology.

The bench had just finished explaining, from the dais and with admirable patience, that holders of the OCI card do not enjoy the right to protest that Indian citizens do. The actor then undertook never to repeat the exercise, and the court rewarded the contrition by extending the stay on the Leave India Notice that had been counting down his time in the country.

Image for representational purpose only

The Detour That Became A Detention

It all began on October 10, when Khan turned up at the Mumbai demonstration against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls, a cause that concerns voters, a category the OCI card pointedly excludes. Police detained him at the protest, and the photographs did the rest of the work. BJP leader Kirit Somaiya lost no time in lodging a complaint alleging violations of OCI rules and visa conditions, and the machinery of the immigration state, which usually moves at the pace of a government lift, discovered an unusual turn of speed.

The Boarding Call From The FRRO

On October 14 the Foreigners Regional Registration Office, Mumbai, served the actor a Leave India Notice, ordering him out of the country by October 28. The notice landed like a postcard from a very strict relative, and Khan moved the High Court on October 17 to fight it. On October 27, a single day before his deadline, the court granted interim protection and barred coercive action until November 2, which left the actor with a packed suitcase of legal arguments and a calendar that had suddenly become very interesting.

Monday's Courtroom Theatre

The hearing turned into a masterclass in the gap between a card and a citizenship. The bench asked Khan why on earth he had gone to the protest, observed that an OCI cardholder stands on a different footing from an Indian citizen, and wondered aloud why a foreign national had joined a demonstration against an electoral exercise that does not directly concern him.

His lawyer countered that the rules nowhere prohibit OCI cardholders from joining a protest, a reasonable point of law that the bench's oral remarks treated with visible scepticism. The court then demanded besides an apology, an undertaking, and Khan, reading the room with the instincts of a seasoned performer, delivered both. The judges also asked for details of the FIR, so the criminal complaint from October 10 remains open.

"If an Indian had done the same thing elsewhere would it have been tolerated? If this had happened in America, the person would have been put on the next flight back to India ... Go to USA and participate in protests there and you can even go and cast your vote but you protesting anything here won't be tolerated." the Court remarked.

The Card With The Fine Print

The OCI card is a generous document, since it lets people of Indian origin who hold foreign passports live and work in India indefinitely. It carries no vote, no citizenship and, if Monday's oral observations are any guide, no standing to march against the Chief Election Commissioner. Khan has now discovered the exact outer boundary of that generosity, in public, in front of cameras, with a deportation-style notice as his tour guide.

What Happens Next

The remarks from the bench were oral, and the written order will decide whether the Leave India Notice is withdrawn, modified or quashed. Reports so far have not mentioned the next date of hearing. For now the actor stays, the stay stays, and the lesson hangs in the air of the High Court corridor: a famous face and a precious card can get a man into a protest, though neither of them has yet shown the ability to get him out of the paperwork.