(a) No application for the issuance of any life or disability insurance policy or annuity contract shall be admissible in evidence in any action relative to such policy or contract, unless a true copy of the application was attached to or otherwise made a part of the policy or contract when issued. This provision shall not apply to industrial life insurance policies.

(b) If any policy of life or disability insurance delivered in this State is reinstated or renewed, and the insured or the beneficiary or assignee of the policy makes written request to the insurer for a copy of the application, if any, for such reinstatement or renewal, the insurer shall, within 15 days after receipt of such request at its home office, deliver or mail to the person making such request a copy of such application reproduced by any legible means. If such copy is not so delivered or mailed after having been so requested, the insurer shall be precluded from introducing the application in evidence in any action or proceeding based upon or involving the policy or its reinstatement or renewal. In the case of such a request from a beneficiary, the time within which the insurer is required to furnish a copy of such application shall not begin to run until after receipt of evidence satisfactory to the insurer of the beneficiary's vested interest in the policy or contract. (Added 1967, No. 344 (Adj. Sess.), § 1 (ch. 2, subch. 2, § 17).)