Yesterday, President Pratibha Patil was in the news for the fleet review in Mumbai and for being the first woman president to sail a warship. Read: Navy's grand show of strength, made in India.

Today, she is in the news for an entirely different reason -- a total of 20 mercy petitions, including that of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru, were pending before the President, Rajya Sabha was informed today. 

Sources said the Home Ministry had submitted Afzal Guru's case to the President's Secretariat for a decision on July 27, 2011 with the recommendation that the clemency petition should be rejected. Guru was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 Parliament attack and the order to sentence him to death was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006.

However, Guru's execution was stayed following a mercy petition filed by his wife. He remains on death row since then.

Read on rediff.com: Kashmir will burn if Afzal Guru is hanged