No person having the care of a cemetery, burial ground or crematory shall permit the burial, removal or cremation of a human body until the permit for such burial, removal or cremation has been delivered to him, nor permit the ashes of a human body to be buried therein until there has been delivered to him a certificate that the burial permit and the certificate of the medical examiner prerequisite to the cremating of said body have been duly presented.
Upon the burial, removal, or cremation of a body, the superintendent or other officer in charge of the cemetery or crematory shall indorse upon the coupon accompanying the permit the fact of such burial, removal or cremation, with the date thereof, shall make and preserve in the files of the cemetery or crematory a record of such burial, removal or cremation, including any recital in the burial permit relative to service of the deceased as a veteran as defined in section ten of chapter forty-six, and also the location of the grave or other receptacle of the body or ashes of the deceased, and shall forthwith return the coupon to the office issuing the same; provided, that if there is no officer in charge of the cemetery or crematory, such duties shall be performed by the undertaker.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 114, § 47