Bank Holiday On Mahashivratri 2025: Are Your Bank Branches Open On Wed, February 26? Check City-Wise List

Bank Holidays 2025: February 26 is officially a public holiday announced by many states of India, and even countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka due to the auspicious occasion of Mahashivratri. That being said, the stock market window is closed on Wednesday as well. Does that mean, all scheduled commercial banks in India are shut on the Mahashivratri festival?

Bank Holiday On February 26?

As per the RBI's list of bank holidays, banks will be closed on February 26 due to Mahashivratri. However, the holiday is not applicable in every city of India.

The list revealed that banks will be closed in cities like Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Belapur, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Shimla, Srinagar, and Thiruvananthapuram.

However, bank branches will be open in cities like Agartala, Chennai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Itanagar, Imphal, Kolkata, Kohima, New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, and Shillong.

Mahashivratri is part of RBI's Negotiable Instruments Act.

Maha Shivaratri is a Hindu festival celebrated annually in honour of the deity Shiva, between February and March. According to the Hindu calendar, the festival is observed on the fourteenth day of the first half of the lunar month of Phalguna, as per Wikipedia.

Bank holidays listed for February 2025 month are under two categories Negotiable Instruments Act, and Banks' Closing of Accounts by RBI. Overall, there are 8 special holidays for banks this month excluding second and fourth Saturdays and all Sundays.

Notably, bank holidays vary from state to state, so not all banks need to be closed on public holidays across India. But on national holidays like Independence Day, Republic Day, or Gandhi Jayanti, all banks are compulsorily closed across India irrespective of state or city. National holidays are generally fixed and practised by every state.

It is RBI that decides the holidays of Indian banks. Apart from second and fourth Saturdays, RBI identifies special occasions as holidays under three categories namely - Holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act; Holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holidays; and Banks' Closing of Accounts. These special holidays are in most cases public holidays and national holidays