Devan Ramachandran, J.

"The subjects of every State ought to have contributed towards support of the Government, as merely as possible in proportion to their respective abilities" Adam Smith said in his celebrated treatise "Wealth of Nations" in the year 1776.

2. Most citizens recognize that the taxes are unexpendable for the creation, protection and maintenance of all the constitutive infrastructural services provided by the Government. Citizens would generally comply with the tax levies as long as certain inviolable criterion are met. As the society grows in complexity, especially in financial and fiscal areas, it may not be easy to design and administer a tax system that is fair and equitable in the absolute sense. However, our tax system would achieve an acceptable level of trust of its citizenry if it is generally seen as fair and equitable and this would be the desideratum that any society would aspire to obtain.

3. Perhaps, the most primary pre-requisite to achieve a process of equality in a tax regime would be the safeguards and the checks and balances that the regime adopts for itself. This is because, for a system based on voluntary compliance, the tax payers must