In a significant ruling, the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court stated that a woman booking a hotel room with a man and entering it with him does not imply consent to sexual intercourse. Justice Bharat P. Deshpande emphasised that, even if the woman entered the room, this could not be construed as her consent to sex.
The Court quashed the trial court's 2021 discharge order, which had closed the rape case against accused Gulsher Ahmed. The trial court had reasoned that since the woman booked the room with the accused and entered with him, she had consented to sex. The High Court found this inference to be incorrect, especially as the woman had filed the complaint immediately after the incident.
The case arose in March 2020 when the accused allegedly lured the woman to a hotel under the pretext of offering overseas employment. After entering the room, the woman claimed the accused threatened her life and raped her. She escaped when he went to the bathroom, fled the hotel, and reported the incident to the police.
The trial court had discharged the accused, but the High Court ruled that this decision was erroneous, as it conflated the act of entering the room with consent for sexual activity. The Court restored the trial against the accused, highlighting that the woman’s immediate actions—calling the police and filing a complaint—showed that the intercourse was non-consensual.