1. A. The Supreme Court may, when a case has before been in an appellate court, inspect the record upon the former appeal; and the court may, in any case, after reasonable notice to counsel in the appellate court, award a writ of certiorari to the clerk of the court below, and have brought before it, when part of a record is omitted, the whole or any part of such record.

2. B. When an appeal is refused or after it has been allowed and decided, the Clerk of the Supreme Court shall return the record to the clerk of the circuit court or other tribunal. The clerk of such court or tribunal shall return the record upon the request of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. As soon as a case is decided, the Clerk of the Supreme Court shall cause the appendix and the briefs of counsel to be recorded and preserved in any manner which meets archival standards as recommended by the Archives and Records Division of The Library of Virginia.

   The manuscript of the record in a case in which an opinion was delivered prior to 1950 by the Supreme Court upon refusal of an appeal shall not be destroyed and shall be retained by the clerk of such court in his files.

Code 1950, §§ 8-473, 8-501; 1974, c. 532; 1977, cc. 449, 617; 1984, c. 703; 1988, c. 324; 1994, c. 64.