A court in southern India has delayed the execution of three men convicted of the 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The men were scheduled to be hanged on September 9 after Indian President Pratibha Patil rejected their clemency petitions earlier this month.

But on Tuesday, the Chennai high court said it was staying the executions for two months after another round of appeals. Several lawyers and politicians argue that the execution is illegal because it took the president over 11 years to dismiss the men's mercy pleas.

The men were sentenced to death in 1999 for their part in the assassination, but had appealed to the president for mercy shortly thereafter.

Twenty-six people were tried, convicted and sentenced to death in the case. However, India's Supreme Court subsequently changed the majority of the sentences to life in prison.

Mr. Gandhi was assassinated in 1991 as he campaigned in southern India for reelection. He was killed by a woman suicide bomber who exploded a bomb wrapped around her waist as she knelt to touch Mr. Gandhi's feet.

Soon after the assassination, the Tamil Tigers said they killed Mr. Gandhi to protest India's involvement in Sri Lanka's civil war.