The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre on a Public Interest Litigation challenging the legality of the government's decision to privatise public sector oil firms Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation without taking parliamentary approval.

A notice was issued by a Bench comprising Justice S Rajendra Babu and Justice G P Mathur on a petition filed by the Centre for public interest litigation.

Government had on January 26 decided to sell its 34.01 per cent stake in HPCL to a strategic investor and divest 38.2 per cent in BPCL through market offering.

HPCL and BPCL, which together command 40 per cent of the petro market share, were nationalised through an act of Parliament in 1970s.