The Supreme Court today stayed proceedings on criminal defamation cases filed against BJP leader Subramanian Swamy by AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa.

A bench of Justices Deepak Mishra and U U Lalit also issued notices to Centre and Tamil Nadu government on Swamy's plea for scrapping the provisions for criminal defamation in penal laws. The court stayed the proceedings in all five defamation cases filed against Swamy in Sessions court of Chennai.

Swamy submitted that the provision of criminal defamation is unconstitutional as it put unreasonable restrictions on people's right to free speech and expression. Five defamation cases were filed against Swamy by the state government after the BJP leader had allegedly made some defamatory allegations against Jayalalithaa on social networking site.