N Chandrasekaran, counsel for the prisoners, told UNI that in view of the Union Home Ministry staying the execution till further orders, "we are not in a hurry to approach the President".

"A lobby is working to pressurise the prisoners to file the mercy petitions at the earliest so that they could be disposed of by the President and their fate be sealed, but we will not succumb to this", he said. The prisoners will also await the outcome of the writ petition filed by them in the Madras High Court challenging State Governor Justice M Fathima Beevi's rejection of their mercy petitions.

The prisoners had filed mercy petitions before the Governor on October 18, but they were rejected on October 27. The seven days' time allowed to file the mercy petitions before thePresident after the State Governor's rejection expired on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry, in its communication on November 1, had directed the Tamil Nadu Government to stay the execution of the death warrant due to the pendency of the clemency petitions with the President.

Meanwhile, 20 prominent citizens, including film maker Goutam Ghose and Communist leader Hiren Mukherjee, have appealed to President K R Narayanan to commute to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to the four accused.

In a representation to the President, they said the confirmation by the Supreme Court of the death sentences of Nalini, Santhan, Perarivalan and Murugan were mainly based on confessions extracted from the accused under the `draconian' Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.

Confirmation of the death sentence of the four on the basis of the non-existent act has done them great injustice, they added.

They said the assassination of the former prime minister was a ghastly andhorrendous crime but the death penalty could only add to the number of persons murdered.

They also requested the President to suggest to the new Lok Sabha to amend penal statutes and abolish the death penalty.

The other signatories include Mahashweta Devi, president, Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Group Action, S Gopal, leader of the Tamil Nadu PUCL unit.