Kerala High Court Directs State Govt To Consider Akshaya Entrepreneurs' Plea For Enhancement Of Service Charges

The Kerala High Court has directed the State government to consider the representation made by All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation who have claimed imposition of "unilateral terms and conditions" in the agreement entered with State in order to provide various services to citizens. The confederation has claimed that it has been requesting the Government authorities to increase the rate of service charges for the services rendered by Akshaya Entrepreneurs. Notably, The All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation (petitioner) is a registered Association of Akshaya Entrepreneurs, which has been formulated for protecting the rights and duties of the Akshaya Entrepreneurs in Kerala. Project Akshaya is a project of the Kerala State IT Mission, an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency for Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala. It was introduced as a step towards making the Government more accessible to citizens through Public Private Partnership (PPP). As per the orders of the Government, all Government-to-citizen (G2C) services shall only be routed through Akshaya Centres.Akshaya e-Centres are operated by Akshaya Entrepreneurs, who are selected through a recruitment process, after entering into agreements with the District Collector. As per the petitioner, the terms of the agreements between the Government and Akshaya Entrepreneurs are unilaterally decided by the government. Being aggrieved about this fact, the petitioner had submitted a representation pointing out the difficulties faced by the Akshaya entrepreneurs in the State. The Court noted that the main concern of the petitioner is with respect to an email communication (Exhibit P9) sent by the authorities. In Exhibit P9, it was communicated to the Akshyaya Entrepreneurs that they have to execute a revised agreement, the terms of which are yet not known to them.Justice N. Nagaresh gave a direction to the 2nd respondent (State's Secretary, Information and Technology Department) to consider the Ext. P8 representation of the petitioner and take appropriate decision before finalising the revised agreement.The Court observed“The concern raised by the petitioner is with regard to Clauses in Ext.P9. The authorities, by Ext.P9, are compelling the Akshaya entrepreneurs to execute fresh agreement, the terms of which are yet not known to the petitioner. There is a direction to that effect in Ext.P9. After hearing the petitioner and the respondents, I am of the view that the 2nd respondent can consider the grievance raised by the petitioner before finalising the revised agreement, which is proposed in Ext.P9. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of directing the 2nd respondent to consider the representation dated 14.05.2025 addressed to him and take appropriate decision before finalising the revised agreement, as expeditiously as possible. It is made clear that the members of the petitioner shall execute the current agreement and this judgment will not be an excuse not to execute the current agreement.”The plea was disposed of. Case Title: All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation v. State of Kerala & Ors.Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 354Counsel for the Petitioner: V. Premchand, Haliya T.P., Mahadev M.J.Counsel for the Respondents: K. Amminikutty, Government PleaderClick to Read/Download Judgment

Kerala High Court Directs State Govt To Consider Akshaya Entrepreneurs' Plea For Enhancement Of Service Charges

K. Salma Jennath

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