The Jharkhand High Court deferred the hearing on a writ petition filed by the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) against the state assembly Speaker's ruling of merging the party with the BJP.

The bench of Justice S N Prasad on Tuesday set

March 28 for further hearing on the petition.

In February 2015, six JVM MLAs had given a letter to Speaker Dinesh Oraon stating that their party had merged with the BJP and that they should be allotted seats on the ruling BJP benches.

The Speaker found the merger legal and allowed them to sit with the ruling party members.

However, JVM president Babulal Marandi and his party's Legislature Party leader Pradip Yadav petitioned before the Speaker against the ruling and demanded disqualification of the six MLAs on the ground of defection.

The Speaker held hearing from both sides and on February 20 this year ruled that the merger of the six MLAs with the BJP four years ago was legal and rejected the petition of JVM.

The JVM had won eight seats in the 2014 assembly elections.

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