Bank Holiday Or Not On Bihar Diwas 2025: In Which Cities, Banks Are Closed On Saturday, March 22?

Bank Holiday 2025: Indian scheduled commercial banks are going to be closed on Saturday, March 22, 2025, for a host of reasons. Firstly, March 22 is the fourth Saturday of the month, which is recognized as a weekend holiday by RBI for banks. Additionally, some cities are closed on March 22 due to the celebration of Bihar Diwas.

March 22 Bank Holiday:

As per RBI's holiday list, banks will be closed in Panaji and other cities of Bihar due to the celebration of Bihar Diwas on March 22.

What is Bihar Diwas? Bihar Day (Bihar Diwas) is observed every year on March 22,[1] marking the formation of the state of Bihar. On 22 March 1912, the Bihar and Orissa divisions of the Bengal Province were separated to form the Province of Bihar and Orissa in British India. The day is a public holiday in Bihar, as per Wikipedia.

Notably, Bihar Diwas is not only celebrated in India, but also in other countries such as United States, Germany, Britain (Scotland), Australia, Canada, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius.

In February month, RBI's holiday list is under two categories Negotiable Instruments Act, and Banks' Closing of Accounts.

March 22 holiday is under Negotiable Instruments Act. It needs to be noted that RBI decides bank holidays every year.

Fourth Saturday:

March 22 is a fourth Saturday of the current month, hence, all banks in India are closed.

As per RBI guidelines, all scheduled and non-scheduled banks - public, private, foreign, cooperative, regional rural and local area banks - will observe public holiday on second and fourth Saturdays from September 01, 2015; and will observe full working days on Saturdays other than second and fourth Saturdays with effect from September 1, 2015.

That being said, payment systems will not be operated on second and fourth Saturdays but would operate for full day on working Saturdays. Payment systems typically includes Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT), Cheque Clearing operated by various Bankers' Clearing Houses in the country including the grid based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and ECS suite [Electronic Clearing Service (ECS), Regional Electronic Clearing Service (RECS) and National Electronic Clearing Service (NECS)].

Additionally, processing of future value dated transactions with value date falling on second and fourth Saturdays will not be undertaken under RTGS and ECS suite.

However, the financial market segments which are currently open for transactions on Saturdays will continue to remain open on all working Saturdays. This is because of all money market segments, namely, call/notice/term money, market repo and Collateralised Borrowing and Lending Obligation(CBLO) will remain open on all working Saturdays as on any normal business day; and forex market and Government securities markets, along with all OTC derivative markets would remain closed on all Saturdays, as hitherto.

Bank holidays in India 2025, vary from state-to-state and city-to-city, though there are numerous Public Holidays in the year 2025 applicable throughout the country. Some of these holidays include Republic Day (Jan 26), Independence Day (Aug 15) and Gandhi Jayanti (Oct 2). Apart from these, there are important religious and festival holidays such as Diwali, Dussehra, Christmas, Eid, Guru Nanak Jayanthi, Good Friday, Ganesh Chaturthi, Budh Purnima etc.