vs Laxman Mahadev Deshpande & Ors.(1) when the Court referred to the decision in Appaji Bapuji vs Keshav Shamrav.(2) and quoted the following passage from the judgment of Sargent, C.J., with approval: "What is termed a Gordon Settlement was an Arrangement entered into in 1864 by a Committee, of which Mr. 362 Gordon, as Collector, was Chairman, acting on behalf of Government with the watandars in the Southern Maratha Country, by which the Government relieved certain watandars in perpetuity from liability to perform the services attached to their offices in consideration of a 'judi ' or quitrent charged upon the watan lands. . the reports of Mr. Gordon 's Committee on the Satara and Poona Districts and their correspondence with Government can, we think, leave no doubt that the settlements made by that committee, unless it was otherwise, specially provided by any particular settlement, were not intended by either party to these settlements, to convert the watan lands into the private property of the vatandars with the necessary incident of alienability, but to leave them attached to the hereditary offices, which although freed from the performance of service remained intact.