Akshaya Centres Are Not Business Centres, Can't Dictate Service Charge On Public For Availing Essential Services: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently held that Akshaya Centres are intended for connecting the general public with government services and cannot be considered to be business centres with profit motive.Justice N. Nagaresh observed:"The Akshaya Centres are service centres. Akshaya Centres cannot be treated as business centres, enabling the franchisees to run the centre with profit motive alone. The Akshaya Centres are intended to serve the common man. The Centres intended to connect the general public with government services, which otherwise are to be provided by the Government to citizens without levying service charges. The Centres are intended to make good the issue of digital illiteracy and digital divide among the general public."The Court was considering petitions filed by the Forum of Akshaya Centre Entrepreneurs and the All Kerala Akshaya Entrepreneurs Confederation challenging the government order that fixed the fees that can be levied by Akshaya Centres for K-smart services.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.The petitioners urged that the benefit provided by an order of the Local Self Government Department allowing per page charges for online service providers is being taken away by the impugned government order. Moreover, the 3rd respondent Director of Akshaya Project had convened a meeting to consider rate chart and it was decided that when charges are fixed, representatives of Akshaya Centres would also be consulted. According to them, the order was issued without consultation and fixed service charges for each service without regard to the volume of work and costs involved. Thus, they prayed for stay of the government order and for consideration of their representations regarding the charges.However, the Court refused to interfere in the matter since the entrepreneurs are running the Akshaya Centres in accordance with the terms of the agreements entered into by them with the government. Therefore, it felt that they are bound to run the Centres and fix charges as decided by the government.The Court further observed that the entrepreneurs have no statutory or other right to demand or dictate the charges to be levied from the public for availing the essential services offered. It also remarked, "The relationship between the petitioners and the Government is purely contractual. The petitioners have the right to accept the terms of the contract or quit."Thus, it dismissed the writ petitions.Case Title: Forum of Akshaya Centre Entrepreneurs and Anr. v. State of Kerala and Ors. and connected caseCase No: W.P.(C) Nos.29740 & 30756 of 2025Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Ker) 557Counsel for the petitioners: Manas P. Hameed, Ipsita Ojal, Ardra P., Amaljith, V. Premchand, Haliya T.P., Mahadev M.J.Counsel for the respondents: Rajeev Jyothish George - Government PleaderClick to read/download judgment

Akshaya Centres Are Not Business Centres, Can't Dictate Service Charge On Public For Availing Essential Services: Kerala High Court

K. Salma Jennath

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