The Supreme Court on Monday stayed contempt proceedings against Coke and Pepsi in the Rajasthan high court for their failure to implement the court order to declare contents of their soft drinks.

A division bench of Justice Arun Kumar and Justice R V Raveendran passed the order during hearing of an appeal filed by the two multinational companies challenging the June, 2005 order of the Rajasthan high court directing them to make disclosure of the contents of their soft drinks.

The order was passed after senior counsel K K Venugopal informed the Apex court that the government has already initiated the process to enact a law on the issue. The Bill is pending before a select committee of Parliament and is likely to be cleared soon, he said.

Senior counsel Arun Jaitley submitted on behalf of Coke that with the main petition being pending, contempt proceedings should be stayed in view of the fact that the government is already seized of the matter and a new law is coming.