A deaf and disabled British charity worker jailed in India for drug smuggling may be granted clemency.

Ian Stillman from Berkshire was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by an Indian court in 2000 for possessing 20 kilograms of cannabis - a charge he has always denied.

Friends and family of the 51-year-old claim his trial was unfair and have been campaigning for his release for the last two years.

On Friday the deputy prime minister of India told the BBC his government was inclined to consider a plea for clemency sympathetically.

Mrs Stillman continues to work with the deaf

Mr L K Advani said: "In the case of Mr Stillman the courts have held that he is guilty.

"The only way now is for clemency by the president and this can happen if there is an appeal for clemency made by him - Stillman.

"And we are inclined to consider it sympathetically.

"But it would mean that Stillman would have to be deported - he cannot remain in India if clemency is granted."

Profoundly deaf

This option may prove difficult for Stillman who has devoted 30 years of his life to charity work in his adopted India.

With his Indian wife Sue, Stillman set up the Nambikkai Foundation - a charity dedicated to providing education, training and employment for deaf people in India.

Stillman has been profoundly deaf since the age of two.

And following a motorcycle accident in 1995, he also relies on an artificial leg to help him walk.

'Unfair trial'

While travelling in a taxi late at night in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, in an area called the Kullu Valley, he was stopped by police.

Later, at the police station, he says he was shown a bag, which is alleged to have contained 20 kilograms of cannabis and told this had been found in his car.

He was sentenced to 10 years, and has since lost an appeal against that conviction.

The nature of the trial outraged human rights campaigners.

Although Stillman can lip-read English and understand sign language, proceedings were conducted in Hindi and his supporters say he was refused access to a translator.