In a suspected power grab, the Spanish government said the ruling would allow businesses in Catalonia to relocate to elsewhere in Spain.
Spanish Government minister Inigo Mendez De Vigo said he was calling on Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont “to come back to realm of reality and respect of legality and in that spirit we can negotiate and enter dialogue”.
Mr De Vigo said he wanted to “close the gap of violations of democracy”.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has offered all-party political talks to find a solution, opening the door to a deal giving Catalonia more autonomy.
But he has ruled out independence and rejected a Catalan proposal for international mediation.
The stakes are high for the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy. Catalonia is the source of a huge chunk of its tax revenue and hosts multinationals from carmaker Volkswagen to drugs firm AstraZeneca.
It also attracts one third of investment into Spain and produces one third of Madrid’s exports.
More than two million Catalan voters turned out for the referendum which left more than 500 people injured in a series of clashes with Spanish police.
But the EU, as well as Spain’s central government, has condemned the vote as illegal and unconstitutional and are refusing to acknowledge the result.
In a last-ditch attempt to bring Catalonia back under control EU officials have warned quitting Spain would also mean quitting the bloc.
The court’s suspension order further aggravated one of the biggest crises to hit Spain since the establishment of democracy on the 1975 death of General Francisco Franco.
Secessionist Catalan politicians have pledged to unilaterally declare independence at Monday’s session after staging an independence referendum.
Madrid had banned the vote and sought to thwart it by sending in riot police.
In a separate development that could raise tensions, Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero appeared in Spain’s High Court on Friday to answer accusations he committed sedition by failing to enforce a court ban on holding the referendum.
Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggest a minority of around 40 percent of residents in Catalonia back independence. But a majority wanted a referendum to be held, and the violent police crackdown angered Catalans across the divide.
Catalan officials released preliminary referendum results showing 90 percent support in favour of breaking away.