The respondents ' contentions were, however, that (1) in point of fact the Government of Bombay, acting through the officers of the forest department had recognised the Jagirdar 's rights by permitting the contractors to carry on the work of cutting timber; (2) that though the Government of" (1) ; 586 Bombay subsequently repudiated the Jagirdars ' rights that repudiation was of no avail; (3) that the letter sent to the Ruler of Sant State by the Secretary to the States Depart ment, Mr. V. P. Menon, in October, 1948 amounted to a waiver by the Dominion of India of the right of repudiation of the rights of Jagirdars; (4) that after the Jagirdars became the citizens of the Dominion of India there could be no act of State against them; (5) that the doctrine evolved by the Privy Council in its decisions starting from Secretary of State for India vs Kamachee Boye Sahiba(1) and going upto Asrar Ahmed vs Durgah Committee, Ajmer(2) was opposed to the present view on the effect of conquest and cession upon private rights as exemplified in the decisions in United States vs Percheman(3) and that this Court should, therefore, discard the Privy Council 's view and adopt the modem view inasmuch as the latter is considered by common consent to be just and fair and finally (6) that the Jagirdars could not be deprived of the forest rights deprived by them from the Ruler of Sant State before the Constitution, without ,complying with the provisions of section 299 of the Government of India Act, 1935, and after the coming into force of the Constitution without complying with the provisions of article 31 of the Constitution.