Section 30 Records of registrar; certified copies; destruction
Section 30. A proper record of all applications and of all certificates and licenses issued shall be kept by the registrar at his main office, and such records shall be open to the inspection of any person during reasonable business hours. The registrar shall maintain, in the main office, a record of all convictions of persons charged with violations of the laws relating to motor vehicles, and notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, such record shall be public, open to the inspection of any person during reasonable business hours, and subject to regulations promulgated by the registrar. The registrar may issue a certified copy, attested by him or his authorized agent, of any certificate of registration or of any license to operate motor vehicles which may have been lost or mutilated upon the written request of the person entitled thereto, or, where there are two or more joint owners of a motor vehicle or trailer, he may issue a certificate to each joint owner upon written request of the person entitled thereto; and such certified copies shall have the same force and effect as the originals. Anyone requesting such a certified copy of a license to operate motor vehicles shall submit such evidence as to his identity as the registrar may require. Certified copies of such records of the registrar, attested by the registrar or his authorized agent, shall be admissible as evidence in any court of the commonwealth to prove the facts contained therein. The registrar may destroy applications under this chapter and copies of the licenses and certificates of registration issued by him, and all letters reporting accidents or papers relating thereto, excepting those of the then current year and the year next preceding. He may destroy or dispose of any obsolete number plates and forms which, in his opinion, are no longer of any value to the commonwealth, and may destroy examination papers or the answers given by the applicants for licenses when the same have become of no value or when the licenses applied for have been granted. He may also destroy all records of convictions of persons charged with violation of the laws relating to motor vehicles unless such convictions are final convictions under section twenty-four, excepting those of the then current year and the two years next preceding.