The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred a hearing relating to the compliance of its order by the Punjab government on shifting of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal to hospital, The Hindu reported.

The matter was rescheduled for Thursday after the state government submitted that negotiations with the protesting farmers were ongoing and that it was making efforts to shift Dallewal, who has been on a hunger strike for over a month, to a hospital.

On Saturday, the court had given the Punjab government time till Tuesday to convince Dallewal to move to a hospital. The vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sudhanshu Dhulia had rebuked the state for not adhering to its earlier directives mandating medical care for the farmer leader.

On Tuesday, the state sought three additional days to comply with the court directive, The Indian Express reported.

Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh informed the bench that the protestors had proposed that Dallewal would accept medical treatment if the Union government was ready to talk to them, Live Law reported.

Dallewal, chief of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on an indefinite hunger strike at Khanauri, located on the Punjab-Haryana border, since November 26.

The 70-year-old cancer patient had announced his protest on the fourth anniversary of the farmers’ movement against the now-scrapped farm laws.

Dallewal’s hunger strike is part of a wider campaign by Punjab’s farmer groups to press the Union government to accept their demand for legally guaranteed minimum support prices. The minimum support price is the cost at which the government procures crops from farmers.

Along with the legal guarantee, they have also been demanding the implementation of the MS Swaminathan Commission’s wider recommendations for farming in India, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, a farm debt waiver and the reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.

The farmers have alleged that the Centre has not taken steps to address their demands, claiming that no talks have been held since February.