New Delhi, March 19 -- The Supreme Court has called on appellate courts across the country to ensure that convicts are duly notified at their registered addresses before appointing an amicus curiae (lawyer to assist court) to argue their appeals, cautioning that failure to do so risks undermining the fairness of criminal proceedings. A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma noted that it has repeatedly encountered cases where convicts later challenge adverse verdicts on the ground that their appeals were argued by court-appointed lawyers without their knowledge or consent. The court underlined that while appointing an amicus curiae is often necessary, particularly when an accused is unrepresented or has abandoned proceedings, such appointments cannot substitute the fundamental requirement of putting the convict on notice. The bench, in its judgment released on Wednesday, acknowledged a growing pattern in criminal appeals that convicts, after securing bail, frequently lose interest in actively pursuing their cases. This leaves appellate courts in a difficult position, compelled to proceed with hearings to avoid indefinite delays. "Drawing from experience, we can record that on many an occasion, such convicts become untraceable. These convicts, enjoying the concession of bail and misusing it, need to be dealt with firm and strong hands by the courts," it said. However, the bench noted that in several instances, convicts later return to court claiming they were unaware that the case had been decided with the assistance of an amicus. "In order to curb the tendency of convicts to raise technical pleas of the nature.we observe that, henceforth, whenever an appellate court considers it desirable to appoint an amicus to represent a convict whose counsel is absent, such court may also consider the desirability of issuing a notice from the registry to the address of the convict.to be served on him through the jurisdictional police station," it said....