New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the criminal defamation proceedings against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi which were initiated against him in a court in Maharashtra for his election speech last year attacking the RSS.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant stayed the proceedings after hearing senior counsel P.P. Rao, appearing for Mr Gandhi about similar petitions pending in the top court where defamation proceedings had been stayed.

The bench directed the writ petition of Mr Gandhi be tagged with petitions filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and DMDK leader Vijayakanth and posted the matter for final hearing on July 8.

When senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani pointed out that since Mr Gandhi had given an undertaking before the trial court that he would appear tomorrow, no stay should be granted. However, the bench said since they were not deciding the merits of each petition, it would stay the proceedings and decide the larger issue whether there could be criminal defamation for a speech made a citizen.