New Delhi: Today (15 May), the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings by a local court in Rajasthan against actress Shilpa Shetty regarding the kissing incident which took place during an AIDS awareness programme at the Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the capital last month.

While staying the proceedings, a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan also issued notices to the parties on Shetty's petition seeking a transfer of all the cases related to the controversy against her to Mumbai.

In addition, the Bench stayed the order of the local court which restrained the actress from going overseas.

Yesterday,Shetty had moved the Apex Court seeking transfer to a Mumbai court.

While seeking to have the criminal cases registered against the actress in the judicial magistrate courts of Jodhpur quashed, Ghaziabad and Mundawar (Alwar) had also sought a stay on the proceedings until the transfer plea was decided.

In her petition, the actress asserts that the 15 April incident was wrongly projected by the media which resulted in the filing of private complaints before the magistrates at Jodhpur, Mundawar and Ghaziabad by some local lawyers.

The actress was concerned that she might be served with summons/warrants by the respective magistrates and hence sought transfer of the cases to the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai, where she lives.