The Union government on Monday submitted before the Supreme Court that the judgment on privatisation of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd required "serious reconsideration" as it had wide implications on the divestment process and cast clouds on it.

This was submitted by Attorney General Soli Sorabjee before a bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha during the hearing of a petition challenging the privatisation of railway coach manufacturing firm Jessop & Co Ltd.

The bench adjourned the matter for two weeks as the petitioner organisation sought time to file rejoinder to the government's stand.

Sorabjee said some parts of the apex court's judgment required serious reconsideration as the judgment's potential ramification and wide repercussion "cast clouds on the entire divestment process."

This submission came when the bench asked Sorajbee whether the petition in the Jessop & Co privatisation needed to be allowed in the view of the recent judgment stalling the privatisation in HPCL and BPCL till Parliament approval.

The attorney general said in the HPCL and BPCL judgment the court's perception "of the constitutional angle" according to which the government would have to take prior Parliament approval for dismantling (sale) of every company even if not set up under a statute but formed by government funds from the Consolidated Fund of India, would require reconsideration.