MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently directed an insurance company to pay Rs 5 lakh to a woman whose husband was gored to death by a bull during a jallikattu event in Eratchandar Thirumalai village in Karur in 2025.
Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order on a petition filed by the woman, K Mathuram, seeking direction to the company to disburse the amount.
According to Mathuram, her husband, a retired school teacher, had gone to watch the jallikattu event in the above village in the Kulithalai taluk of Karur last January. When he was standing near the collection point, a bull that participated in the event gored him to death.
A case was registered in this regard by the Thogamalai police. Though the event was fully insured so that in case of any untoward incidents, Rs 5 lakh may be paid to the victim’s family, she has not received any payment so far.
But the counsel representing the insurance company raised two objections. He said the victim was standing near the collection point and not the spectator gallery, and the name of the bull owner was not mentioned in the FIR, making it impossible to verify if the death had indeed occurred due to a bull that participated in the jallikattu.
Upon hearing the plea, the judge criticised the event organiser for failing to respond to the court despite notice. He directed the Karur collector not to permit him to conduct jallikattu events in the future. As regards the company’s objections, the judge pointed out that the FIR does not say that the victim left the public gallery and went near the collection point.
The gallery extended from Vadivasal to the collection point, and the victim could have stood in the gallery, which was close to the collection point, the judge noted.