Bank holidays: Brace for 21 days of closure in October

October is the month of festivals across India. According to the holiday list of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), banks will remain closed for 21 days out of 31 days. If you have any urgent business with your bank, plan accordingly. These 21 days take into account state-specific leaves and the weekends. Out of the 21 holidays, seven days are usual weekends off, while the other 14 days stand as the RBI-listed holidays for different states.

Classification of holidays

 These 14 leaves are a combination of state-specific leaves, religious celebrations and festivals. However, according to RBI’s official classifications the list of holidays are usually grouped under the titles of ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’ and ‘Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday’ and ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’.

In the case of October, the majority of the holidays come under the ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’ classification as this is the month of festivals.

Three weeks

October has five Sundays and five Saturdays, of which all five Sunday and two Saturday are weekly offs. Sundays are 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31 and second and fourth Saturdays are 9 and 23 October.

Apart from these seven days there are 14 other days when banks will be closed and you will not get any service.

October 1 is the half yearly closing of bank accounts only in the state of Sikkim. On October 2 banks across the country will be closed due to Gandhi Jayanti.

On October 6 banks in the states of West Bengal, Tripura and Karnataka will be closed due to Mahalaya celebration.

On October 7 banks in the state of Manipur is closed due to Mera Chaoren Houba of Lainingthou Sanamahi.

From October 12 to 15 all banks in the states of West Bengal and a few other states Tripura would be closed due to Durga Puja.

 On October 16 banks in Sikkim is closed due to Dasain. Due to Kati Bihu banks in Assam will remain close on October 18.

On October 19 banks from multiple states will remain close on account of Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.

Due to Laxmi Puja and Valmiki Jayanti banks in West Bengal, Tripura, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Shimla will remain closed on October 20.

On October 22, due to Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi banks in the UT of Jammu will remain closed. On October 26 banks will be closed on account of Accession Day.

Bank closing list of October

1) October 1 – Half yearly closing (Gangtok)

2) October 2 – Gandhi Jayanti (All India)

3) October 3 – Sunday

4) October 6 – Mahalaya (Agartala, Bengaluru, Kolkata)

5) October 7 – Mera Chaoren Houba of Lainingthou Sanamahi (Imphal)

6) October 9 – 2nd Saturday

7) October 10 – Sunday

8) October 12 – Durga Puja-Saptami (Agartala, Kolkata)

9) October 13 – Durga Puja-Ashtami (Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Gangtok, Guwahati, Imphal, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi)

10) October 14 – Durga Puja-Nabami and Dussehra (Agartala, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Shillong, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram)

11) October 15 – Durga Puja-Dasami and Dasara or Dusshera (All India except Imphal and Shimla)

12) October 16 – Durga Puja-Dasain (Gangtok)

13) October 17 – Sunday

14) October 18 – Kati Bihu (Guwahati)

15) October 19 – Id-E-Milad or Eid-e-Miladunnabi or Milad-i-Sherif or Baravafat (Ahmedabad, Belapur, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram)

16) October 20 – Maharishi Valmiki’s Birthday and Lakshmi Puja and Id-E-Milad (Agartala, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Shimla)

17) October 22 – Friday following Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi (Jammu, Srinagar)

18) October 23 – 4th Saturday

19) October 24 – Sunday

20) October 26 – Accession Day (Jammu, Srinagar)

21) October 31 – Sunday