During his term as president , he was affectionately known as the '' People 's President '' , saying that signing the Office of Profit Bill was the toughest decision he had taken during his tenure . Kalam was criticised for his inaction in deciding the fate of 20 out of the 21 mercy petitions submitted to him during his tenure . Article 72 of the Constitution of India empowers the President of India to grant pardons , and suspend or commute the death sentence of convicts on death row . Kalam acted on only one mercy plea in his five-year tenure as president , rejecting the plea of rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee , who was later hanged . Perhaps the most notable plea was from Afzal Guru , a Kashmiri terrorist who was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India in 2004 . While the sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006 , the pending action on his mercy plea resulted in him remaining on death row . He also took the controversial decision to impose President 's Rule in Bihar in 2005
December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament
2001 Indian Parliament attack
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam