The widow of the deceased was entitled to claim compensation under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, even after her remarriage, as she continued to represent the estate of the deceased.

SUDHIR MITTAL, J.

1. This is an application for placing on record additional evidence filed by the applicant-appellant. By virtue of this application the applicant-appellant seeks to produce on record certificate dated 17. 02. 2003 (Annexure A-1) issued by a private investigator to the effect that Nidhi Goel (respondent No. 1) had re-married on 17.1.2001.

2. Notice of this application was issued on 04.03.2015. No reply had been filed thereto by the claimants till 15.12.2017, when judgment was reserved and liberty was granted to the learned counsel representing the claimants to file an affidavit of respondent No. 1 Nidhi Goel regarding her marital status.

3. Nidhi Goel has filed her affidavit dated 18.08.2015 attested on 14.12.2017. In this affidavit Nidhi Goel is mentioned as wife of Naveen Gupta and resident of Pandit Dev Dutt Marg, Vikas Nagar, Dehradun. A perusal of the application shows that in the report (Annexure A-1), Nidhi Goel is stated to have been married with Naveen Gupta and her address is mentioned as Vikas Nagar, Dehradun.

4. From the above, it is apparent that Nidhi Goel re-married on 17.1.2001 and is presently the wife of Naveen Gupta. No doubt that the report dated 17.2.2003 is sought to be produced by way of additional evidence vide application dated 26.2.2015 and as such would be liable to be rejected for non-exercise of due diligence by the applicant, but keeping in view the fact that respondent No. 1 Nidhi Goel has admitted herself to be wife of Naveen Gupta, the application for additional evidence can be allowed.

5. In view of the above, in exercise of jurisdiction vested under Order 41 Rule 27 (1)(b) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, application for additional evidence is allowed and the certificate (Annexure A-1), is taken on record.

6. This judgment would dispose of (FAO No. 4805 of 2002 and FAO No. 3412 of 2002), as the same arise out of one and the same accident. FAO No. 4805 of 2002 has been filed by the Insurance Company whereas FAO No. 3412 of 2002 has been filed by the claimants.

7. On 13.10.2000, Sanjay Goel s/o Niranjan Parkash was going on his car from Ladwa to Pipli. After he crossed village Mathana tractor bearing No. HR- 07A/6724 came from the opposite direction and it was being driven rashly and negligently. It was also towing a trolley. The accident was caused due to rash and negligent driving of the Tractor resulting in serious injuries to him as well as one Gian Chand, who was sitting in the co-driver seat. This accident was witnessed by Dr. Ved Parkash Aggarwal, a private medical practitioner of Ladwa who was in his own car and was following at a little distance. As a result of this accident, Sanjay Goel passed away at the age of 28 years.

8. Learned Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs 12,89,500/- to the claimants along with interest @ 9% p.a. vide award dated 08. 02. 2002. It was held that the accident had been caused due to rash and negligent driving of respondent No. 1 Jai Pal (driver of tractor). While assessing the compensation, reliance was placed upon income-tax returns Ex. PJ for the assessment year 1997-98 and 1998-99 to conclude dependency as Rs 80,000/- per annum. Taking the age of the deceased to be 28 years, a multiplier of 16 was applied for calculating the compensation awardable to the claimants.

9. Learned counsel for the Insurance Company has vehemently contended that no compensation is payable to the widow viz. Nidhi Goel as she got re-married within about three months of the death of her husband. He further submitted that the dependency had been wrongly assessed because -

(i) the income of the deceased was assessed on the higher side and,

(ii) the number of dependents would decrease if Nidhi Goel is not held entitled to any compensation.

10. Both these contentions have been strongly contested by learned counsel for the claimants.

11. It is the case of the Insur