The Senior Judge, Senior division, D C Shah issued notices to the VMC and the primary school education board and fixed the next hearing for July 17.

A Government circular issued recently said since the appointment of the 862 employees had not been cleared by the state government, the arrears given to them as per the commission recommendations would be deducted from their salaries as they were not entitled to the same.

Appearing on behalf of the affected employees, advocate Narendra Tiwari contended that school board employees were bracketed under two categories, one whose appointments had been sanctioned by the government and the other by the VMC.

He added that for those appointed by the state government, 80 per cent of the money came from government aid and 20 per cent from VMC aid.

For the others, the VMC bore 100 percent of the expenses. The advocate contended that there was only a technical difference between the two and the 862 employees were entitled to the amount under the pay commission's recommendations, and hence the government circular was not valid. The court, following the contention, granted an interim stay on the operation of the circular.