The occasion was a writ petition moved by the Andhra Pradesh state council of All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC). The employees in the state are reportedly going on strike soon.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice VN Khare issued a notice to the Centre asking it to reply to the objection to the judgment by Justice M B Shah (now retired) in the case of Tamil Nadu government servants' strike. Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee and senior counsel Ram Jethmalani and Kapil Sibal said there could be no total ban on strikes.
Sorabjee said the Andhra petition provided "a good opportunity to discuss the issue afresh". He said the observation in the Tamil Nadu judgment was unnecessary.
The AITUC argued that the observations made in the Tamil Nadu judgment had no force of law because they were made as passing observations, or "obiter dicta".
Issues arising in that case were settled at the initiative of the court without going into the right of the government servants to strike. But the judgment made sweeping remarks against government servants' freedom. Any ban on strikes would "be a sure road to totalitarian governments," the AITUC asserted.
Though strike had not been recognised separately as a right, "strikes are internationally accepted as a part of workers' right of collective bargaining," it said.
