Government staff cannnot go on strike, rules SC
New Delhi: A two-member bench of the Supreme Court has ruled that government employees have no “fundamental, legal, moral or equitable right to go on strike and hold the state machinery and citizens to ransom." The ruling has had mixed reactions. Trade unions described the decision as retrograde. But chambers of commerce and industry cautiously welcomed the judgement. Union labour minister Sahib Singh Verma said government employees should have some way of ventilating their legitimate grievances.

Disposing of petitions pertaining to dismissal of nearly two lakh striking Tamil Nadu government employees for going on strike, the bench comprising Justice MB Shah and Justice AR Lakshmanan said the reinstated employees will take care to observe discipline in future as there was no fundamental or equitable right available to them to go on strike. Justice Shah, writing for the bench said: "Ttrade unions though have a guaranteed right for collective bargaining on behalf of the employees but they too have no right to go on strike.” On the intervention of the apex court, the Tamil Nadu government had agreed to take back most of the dismissed employees except 6,072 against whom FIRs were pending for allegedly resorting to violence and abetting employees to strike work from July 2.
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