Viscount Dilhorne (delivering the majority judgement):

Section 10(1) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1947, of Malaya provided that income tax should be payable

upon the income of any person accruing in or derived from the Federation or received in the Federation from outside the Federation . . . .

and s. 45 of that Ordinance, as amended in 1948, provided that:

If the High Commissioner in Council by Order declares that arrangements specified in the Order have been made with the Government of any territory outside the Federation with a view to affording relief from double taxation in relation to tax under this Ordinance and any tax of a similar character imposed by the laws of that territory, and that it is expedient that those arrangements should have effect, the arrangements shall have effect in relation to tax under this Ordinance notwithstanding anything in any written law.

This provision was later amended to enable the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to exercise the powers it gave to the High Commissioner in Council, and in their exercise he made the Double Taxation Relief (Republic of Singapore) Order, 1966. Scheduled to that Order was an Agreement made between the Republic of