NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Jharkhand government on a PIL , which has demanded that the city of Jamshedpur be taken out of the control of the Tatas, who have historically been in charge, and handed over to an elected body.A three-judge bench of the top court led by CJI Dipak Misra allowed the state government to take an interim call on the city’s fate. The state order would, however, be subject to the outcome of this petition.The high court had earlier asked the state to either declare it an industrial township or hand it over to an elected body under the Panchayati Raj Act.The court had acted on a PIL which had alleged that the Tatas had been discriminating against outsiders in the city, Jamshedpur. As a result, it alleged, most of Jamshedpur was without ba sic civic amenities. The petition had pointed out that the city had neither been designated an industrial township nor been placed under an elected local body such a municipality. Jamshedpur is still administered by a Notified Area Council The PIL, filed by Jawaharlal Sharma, was argued by activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan. He was assisted by lawyer Pranav Sachdeva.The petition argued that the government was mandated to give effect to the panchayati raj Act within a year unless it declared a town an industrial township.In this case, the government had done neither. “… an industrial township is always made for a small place and Jamshedpur is the largest and most populated city in the state of Jharkhand.”Establishment of a municipality ensures that basic decisions affecting the lives of the people at local level are taken by an elected council directly accountable to the people, the PIL said.As there was no municipality in Jamshedpur, basic services such as primary education, health, sanitation, water supply, solid waste management, and other public necessities like road, parks etc are the responsibility of an unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic industrial establishment, it alleged.“The basic purpose of the 73rd and 74th amendments was to ensure devolution of powers to the local elected body accountable directly to the people. Decentralisation is one of the most important pillar of democracy.... However, the objective is defeated if the state government in collusion with an industrial house refuses to establish a municipality by delaying the decision for several decades.”There has been a series of litigations on this, the PIL stated. As a result of which the state government had declared that it would make Jamshedpur a municipality.But a notification declaring such intent was challenged by Tata Steel . The Panchayati Raj Act came into force in the meantime mandating the state to act.In the last round of the litigation, Tata Steel challenged a high court order, which gave the state to come out with a fresh notification declaring it a municipality.But after the case attained finality in the top court the state went back and announced its intent to declare it an industrial township.