The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear a petition seeking review of its earlier decision banning strike by government employees and issued a notice to the 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 judgment, 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 he was not in favour of indiscriminate strike by government employees but added that one cannot totally take away their right to strike.

The Attorney General said 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 the right to strike cannot be completely taken away.