Clearing the first of the 28 pending mercy petitions before the President, the government has decided to pardon a murder convict, R Govindasamy, who was sentenced to death for the murder of his uncle, aunt and three cousins at a Tamil Nadu village in 1984 over a property dispute.

In its advice to the President on the case, the Home Ministry has recommended that the death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

The advice, which was sent to the President on Wednesday, sets in motion the process of clearing all the pending mercy petitions one by one. Home Minister P Chidambaram had promised to decide on one case every month till the entire list was disposed of.

The list includes the name of Mohammad Afzal Guru, who has been sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack case. His mercy petition before the President has been pending since 2006. The delay in carrying out the death sentence because of the pending mercy petition had exposed the government to allegations from the Opposition parties that it was trying to shield a terrorist.

Govindasamy’s mercy petition has been pending with the President since August 1998 and had been rejected on three earlier occasions. Govindasamy, who committed the crime on May 29, 1984 was acquitted by a trial court on June 24, 1987, but this judgment was set aside by the Madras High Court which held him guilty of multiple murders and awarded the death sentence to him.