New Delhi, Nov 07: The Supreme Court today decided to hear a petition seeking review of its earlier decision banning strike by government employees and issued a notice to Union Government. Hearing a petition filed by one P Nageshwar Rao, a bench, headed by Chief Justice V N Khare, asked Attorney General Soli Sorabjee whether the court should review its own order banning strike by government employees.

Sorabjee said the earlier judgement, passed by a bench headed by Justice M B Shah in the Tamil Nadu government employees strike case, contained observations which were "unwarranted and unnecessary".

Justice Shah, writing for the bench, had said that government employees had no fundamental, legal, moral or statutory right to go on strike.

Sorabjee said that he was not in favour of indiscriminate strike by government employees but added, at the same time one cannot totally take away their right to strike.
The Attorney General said that the Nageshwar Rao petition presented a "good opportunity" to discuss the issue pertaining to right of government employees to strike.

The bench, before issuing the notice, asked senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and Kapil Sibal regarding their views on the matter.


Both of them agreed with Sorabjee and said that the right to strike cannot be completely taken away.
Bureau Report