The Spanish Constitutional Court on Wednesday accepted the appeal presented by the Spanish government against the independence motion approved by the Catalan regional assembly on Monday.
The motion to begin moves towards the creation of a Catalan Republic was approved by 72 votes to 63 in the Catalan assembly, Xinhua new agency reported.
On Tuesday, the appeal was approved by the Spanish State Council and passed on to the Constitutional Court after a meeting of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's cabinet on Wednesday morning.
The Spanish government believes the decision taken by the Catalan assembly "clearly violates" eight articles of the Spanish Constitution.
By accepting the appeal, the Constitutional Court automatically freezes all action that Catalan assembly can legally take to advance the motion and it has advised 21 leading Catalan politicians, among them the leader of the Junts pel Si pro-independence coalition, Artur Mas and the president of the assembly, Carme Forcadell, of their obligation to obey the resolution or face charges of disobedience.
Given that the motion passed in Catalonia on Monday included a clause which said the dictates of Spanish institutions such as the Constitutional Court would not be adhered to, the Catalan assembly is unlikely to heed the Court's findings.
Earlier in the day, Rajoy said the motion was an "absolute challenge to the rule of law," which "attacked" the "love felt by Spaniards towards their nation".
"Everything is being broken here--five centuries of history and the rights of millions of Spaniards," said Rajoy, who insisted the motion in the Catalan assembly "denied the entire current constitutional order."
"I am not going to allow it," he said.
