Banks will remain closed for up to nine days, including weekend offs and festivals, in April depending upon the state, as the Reserve Bank of India has released the list of holidays for the month. Hyderabad will see the most number of bank holidays (nine), while Shimla will witness the least (five), based on the region-specific festivals.
The holidays are categorised under three heads ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’, ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday’ and ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’. One holiday takes place on account of ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’ on April 1 when a majority of banks across the country remain closed, while ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’ categorisation sees the highest number of holidays.
On the RBI-notified bank holidays, branches of all public sector, private sector, foreign banks, cooperative banks and regional banks remain closed.
The month of April has several festivals lined up, including Assam’s Bihu and Bengali New Year for West Bengal. The month will also see somewhat a long weekend, with banks being closed for as many as four consecutive days on the account of Ambedkar Jayanti, Good Friday, Bohag Bihu and a weekend leave in some parts of India.
The bank holidays in April will also include yearly closing of bank account on April 1, which is reserved for bank employees every year.
Banks remain open on the first and third Saturdays every month. But, this month, they will remain closed on April 16 on account of Bohag Bihu (third Saturday) in some parts of India. The number of holidays have been fixed at nine this month as per the bank holiday list released by the RBI for this year.
April 1: Yearly Closing of Bank Account — All over India (except Aizawl, Chandigarh, Shillong, and Shimla).
April 2: Gudi Padwa/Ugadi Festival/1st Navratra/Telugu New Year’s Day/Sajibu Nongmapanba (Cheiraoba) — Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Manipur, Jammu, Goa, and Jammu & Kashmir
April 4: Sarhul — Jharkhand
April 5: Babu Jagjivan Ram’s Birthday- Telangana
April 14: Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti/Mahavir Jayanti/Baisakhi/Vaisakhi/Tamil New Year’s Day/Cheiraoba/Biju Festival/Bohag Bihu — All over India except Meghlaya and Himachal Pradesh
April 15: Good Friday/Bengali New Year’s Day (Nababarsha)/Himachal Day/Vishu/Bohag Bihu — All over India except Rajasthan, Jammu, and Srinagar
April 16: Bohag Bihu — Assam
April 21: Garia Puja — Tripura
April 29: Shab-I-Qadr/Jumat-ul-Vida — Jammu and Kashmir
April 3: Sunday
April 9: Second Saturday
April 10: Sunday
April 17: Sunday