Adverse possession of the land is the process by which title to another’s land is acquired without his permission. Adverse Possession is a possession which is opposed to once interest of the real owner of the property. It is possession in denial of the title of the true owner. That is the law as it exists is extremely harsh for the true owners and a windfall for a dishonest person who had illegally taken possession of the property of the true owner. Adverse possession consists of actual occupation of the land with the intent to keep it solely for oneself. Merely claiming the land or paying taxes on it, without actually possessing it, is insufficient. Entry on the land, whether legal or not, is essential. A trespass may commence adverse possession, but there must be more than temporary use of the property by a trespasser for adverse possession to be established. Physical acts must show that the possessor is exercising the dominion over the land that an average owner of similar property would exercise.
An adverse possessor must possess land openly for the entire world to see, as a true owner would.
Adverse possession will not ripen into title unless the claimant has had exclusive possession of the land.
Possession must be hostile, sometimes called adverse, if title is to mature from adverse possession.
All elements of adverse possession must be met at all times through the statutory period in order for a claim to be successful. The statutory period, or “statute of limitations”, is the amount of time the claimant must hold the land in order to successfully claim “adverse possession”.
It is necessary to understand the meaning of the word “Possession” which according to the Oxford Dictionary means- The state of having or owing something for a particular time. In general, the possession signify, physical detention coupled with intention to hold the things detained as one’s own to the exclusion of others. So, we can say that
possession consist of two elements: (a) Physical control or power over the object possessed called corpus. (b)Intention or will to exercise that power called animus.
Adverse possession, is the possession of property by a person which is adverse to every other person having, or claiming to have a right of possession by virtue of a different title. The law of prescriptive rights is best summed up by the Brocard, ‘nec vi, nec clam, nec precario’, indicating the acquisition of a right by prescription must be in circumstances that exclude ‘force, stealth or licence’.
A prescriptive right is essentially one that is created by uncontested assertion of the right for a given period of time. The principle is based in many ways on a sort of estoppel in rem. In India, the Limitation Act, 1963 is the legislation that governs the period within which suits are to be filed, etc.. The principle that pervades statutes of limitation at common law is that ‘limitation extinguishes the remedy, but not the right’ this means that the legal right itself is not defeated, but only the right to claim it in a court of law is extinguished. Section 27 of the limitation Act, 1963 proclaims that At the determination of the period hereby limited to any person for instituting a suit for possession of any property, his right to such property shall be extinguished.
In your case trust may approach the civil court for declaration of possession up on the trust