A court in the US state of Virginia has ruled that a local resident must leave 30 acres of land held by a charitable trust linked to Kanu Gandhi, the late grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Mint reported.
The land adjoins Shenandoah National Park in Warren County. It belongs to the Dr Schiva and Kanu Ramdas Mohandas Gandhi Charitable Trust, according to the report.
On October 21, Judge Daryl L. Funk of the Warren County Circuit Court ruled for the trust and its Managing Trustee, Parimal Desai. The court directed Gregory Black to remove a cabin, hunting stands and huts and his belongings within 30 days, at his own expense, and to give up possession, Mint reported. He must also pay $11,375 towards the fees of a guardian ad litem appointed to represent unknown heirs.
How the dispute began
Kanu Gandhi, an MIT graduate who worked for NASA and the US Department of Defense on aircraft design, died in November 2016 at 87, two years after returning to India. His assets, including the US land, passed to his wife, and after her death in 2020 to the trust she set up, Mint reported. The couple had no children.
Desai, a Surat resident, told The Times of India that he learnt of the encroachment in 2025, when he received a legal notice from Black claiming the land by adverse possession. Desai had visited the property in 2024 and had a survey done, according to Mint. Black said he had occupied the land since 2008 but could not prove his claim in court, the report said.
Why it matters
Adverse possession lets a long-term occupier claim land under certain conditions. Virginia's statute of limitations gives a person 15 years to bring an action to recover land, after which that right is lost, under Section 8.01-236 of the state code.
Mint reported that a claimant must show uninterrupted occupation for that period, and that the burden of proof lies on the claimant, including showing the occupation was obvious enough for an attentive owner to notice. Black's claimed start date of 2008 would put the 15-year mark in 2023, but the court found he had not proved his case, according to the report.
The report did not include any response from Black or say whether he plans to appeal. The 30-day period set by the court would end around November 20 if it runs from the date of the ruling.