Although the statutes of the Nobel Foundation at the time allowed for posthumous awards under certain circumstances, Mahatma Gandhi did not belong to an organisation and had not left a will, making it unclear who would receive the prize money.

The committee ultimately decided against a posthumous award, citing that it would be contrary to the intentions of the testator.

According to an entry in Norwegian economist Gunnar Jahn's diary, the Nobel Committee had seriously considered a posthumous award for Mahatma Gandhi. But when the committee, for formal reasons, ended up not making such an award, they decided to reserve the prize. One year later, the committee did not spend the prize money for 1948 at all.

The omission of Mahatma Gandhi from the list of laureates has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.

When the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee stated that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/themes/mahatma-gandhi-the-missing-laureate/