In an unprecedented fashion, all eyes from across and beyond Tamil Nadu are on Governor Banwarilal Purohit as the deadline of the Supreme Court to decide on the mercy petition of Rajiv Gandhi case convict Perarivalan comes to an end on Friday. The Governor has been surfaced with expectations on how he is going to decide the fate of Perarivalan and the other six convicts who are serving their imprisonment for the past three decades in the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case. 

Along with thousands of people, the family members of the convicts also expecting the Governor's decision on whether he grant or reject clemency. According to reports, Banwarilal Purohit would be unfolding his final decision on the evening hours of Friday or on Saturday morning. Perarivalan and six other convicts have been lodged in different Central prisons in Tamil Nadu since 1991 after being convicted of assassinating Rajiv Gandhi. In 1999, the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence to Perarivalan, Nalini, Murugan, and other four people for killing Rajiv Gandhi. 

However, Nalini's death sentence was commuted to life in 2000 while the apex court in 2014 had commuted the death penalty of all the six inmates to life imprisonment. After their sentences were commuted, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had in February 2014 announced that the state government would release the convicts under section 432 of CrPC. 

However, the Supreme Court had halted the decision of releasing them and after many challenges, the Tamil Nadu government led by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami passed a resolution in September 2018 and recommended the Governor to release the seven convicts.

However, the recommendation has been lying on Governor's desk for over two years and he has been surfaced with the demand from the activists and leaders to grant the pardon to Perarivalan and other prisoners. As Perarivalan had moved his petition to the Supreme Court to seek clemency and to direct the Tamil Nadu Governor to decide on the state government's recommendation, the apex court has on January 21st had recorded the Governor's delay as extraordinary and it has given one week time to Banwarilal Purohit to decide on pardoning the convicts. 

The Supreme Court's deadline comes to an end by Friday and according to reports, the Governor would be making the final decision on releasing the six other convicts along with Perarivalan, who sought pardon. Perarivalan's counsel has said that the Governor's Secretary has gone to Delhi to meet the officials of the Union Government to discuss the matter. The meet holds importance as the Central government has opposed the release of the convicts several times in many courts.

According to a news agency, the counsel said that they are not sure what the Governor has discussed and the counsel stated that they want the Governor to announce his decision regardless of whether it comes in favor or against the convicts. The counsel added that they are expecting that the Governor will announce his decision on Friday night.