The Gujarat High Court's single-judge bench of Justice GR Udhwani on Thursday stayed the eviction of a family settled by Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram. The family and its descendants have been living in the ashram since 1920.
The Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Trust won a legal battle against the family in the lower court for getting it evicted. Sonu Thosar, grandson of Babu Thosar, moved the court against the lower court's verdict. Notably, Babu Thosar was brought by Gandhi in the ashram along with other artisans to make leather sandals from dead cattle.
The trust had filed a civil suit in 1998 against the family to get the land back. The trust had contended that the descendants of Babu Thosar have no right over the land. The lower court in February ruled in favour of the trust and ordered the Thosar family to handover the possession of the land to the trust.
While the family failed to showcase any document to justify that they were settled in the ashram by Gandhi, the trust argued that Babu was settled by Gandhi for making sandals in a workshop which closed in 1969 and all the workers were relieved.
