A man facing execution for helping militants in an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 will file a mercy petition to the President APJ Kalam.
Mohammed Afzal's wife has already filed a mercy plea with the president.
The execution of Afzal, due on Friday at Delhi's Tihar jail, has been deferred until the president takes a decision, officials say.
Now Afzal will file a petition "personally" to the president, his lawyer Nandita Haksar told the BBC.
There were violent protests in Indian-administered Kashmir police last month against the court order to hang Afzal, a Kashmiri man.
Ms Haskar said Afzal may be filing his mercy petition by next week.
An official of the Indian interior ministry said Afzal "cannot be executed on Friday" as it was going through the mercy petition handed over to the ministry by the president's office.
According to Indian laws, any mercy plea filed to the president is routed to the interior ministry and then to the federal cabinet of ministers.
The cabinet then conveys its recommendations to the president.
Although the president is not bound to follow the cabinet's recommendations, he can act on the petition only after receiving them.
Lawyers say a convict facing death sentence cannot be hanged till his or her mercy petition is rejected.
Acquittal
Afzal, 39, was due to be hanged on 20 October in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
His conviction was upheld in a ruling by the Supreme Court last year.
If Mr Afzal is executed, he will be the second Kashmiri to be hanged for separatist activities.
In 1984, the founder leader of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Mohammad Maqbool Bhat, was hanged on charges of killing an Indian intelligence official.
The December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi was one of the most controversial incidents in recent Indian history.
Five gunmen shot dead nine people in the parliament grounds, before being killed.
Mohammed Afzal was one of two men sentenced to death. But the punishment for Shaukat Hussain was later reduced to 10 years in jail on appeal.
Two other two accused in the case, SAR Geelani and Afsan Guru, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
India blamed the attack on the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, which it said was backed by Pakistan.
Pakistan denied involvement in the attack but relations between the two countries seriously deteriorated in the following months.
At its worse the two sides amassed some one million troops in confrontation along their border.
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