Marvin Mandel, Governor                       1741

A MAJORITY OF THE RESIDENT CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES
OF THE COUNTY OR CITY and the records must be disposed of
in accordance with the provisions of Sections 7, 8, and 10 of Article
54 of the Annotated Code, as amended from time to time.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That Section 8 of Article 54 of
said Code (1971 Supplement), title "Hall of Records," subtitle "Hall
of Records Commission," be and it is hereby repealed and re-enacted,
with amendments, to read as follows:

8.

If the Commission shall decline to accept any original papers,
official books, records, documents or files offered to it under the
provisions of Section 7, then the custodian thereof, with the written
approval of the Board of Public Works, is authorized and empowered
to destroy the same. After such records are destroyed, the custodian
thereof shall file with the Hall of Records a list of all papers, books,
documents and files destroyed and a certificate of destruction. Such
lists shall be retained in the custody of the Archivist and shall be
available at reasonable times to inspection by the members of the
public. Nothing in this section shall authorize the destruction of
(a) papers, books, documents or files which have been in custody for
a period of less than three years or such other period as may be
expressly prescribed by statute, (b) public records expressly re-
quired by statute to be maintained permanently, except in those cases
where the original record has been photographed, photocopied, or
microphotographed in accordance with the provisions of Section 11 of
this Article, provided that the copy or reproduction of the original
record be available upon request in the same manner as the; original
record, (c) permanent books of account, (d) the records of any
court of record in this state, except as provided for in Section 1A of
Article 17 of this Code, (e) the land records recorded by the respec-
tive clerks of the circuit court for the several counties and the clerk
of the Superior Court of Baltimore City; but old records of which
accurate transcriptions' have been made and placed in use, under the
terms of Article 26, Section 17, and the "housekeeping" records or
the records of internal management of the offices of clerks of court
and registers of wills shall not be considered "records of a court" for
the purpose of this section and Sections 9 and 10 and shall be subject
to disposal as described above, provided, however, that the books,
accounts, and records pertaining to the financial operations of any
agency or department, officers, boards and commissions of the State
of Maryland, and of all the clerks of courts, registers of wills, and
all collectors of the State taxes of the State of Maryland, including
the City of Baltimore, insofar as they affect the collection of State
taxes, shall not be destroyed until such time as the requirements of
[Article 19, Sections 29 to 34,] Article 40, Sections 61A to 61E,
inclusive, relating to the audit of such books, accounts and records
by the State Auditor, shall have been complied with.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1972.

Approved May 31, 1972.