Bank Holidays 2024: Why Did RBI Announce Holiday On September 4, And Are All Bank Branches Closed?

The first special holiday of September month is nearing on Wednesday. Banks will be closed as per the latest holiday list by RBI for the current month. However, not all bank branches will be closed across India, only in one city.

As per RBI, banks will be closed on September 4, 2024, due to the occasion of Tirubhav Tithi of Srimanta Sankardeva.

A regional holiday in the state of Assam during the month of Bhadra, Tithi of Srimanta Shankardev is the death anniversary of saint scholar Srimanta Sankardeva.

Srimanta Sankardev was a 15th-16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of the Bhakti movement in Assam, as per Wikipedia.

Further, he is credited with building on past cultural relics and devising new forms of music (Borgeet), theatrical performance (Ankia Naat, Bhaona), dance (Sattriya), and literary language (Brajavali). Besides, he has left a literary oeuvre of trans-created scriptures (Bhagavat of Sankardev), poetry and theological works written in Sanskrit, Assamese and Brajavali.

Hence, banks in Guwahati will only be closed on September 4, 2024.

That also means that banks in cities like Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Belapur, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Gangtok, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Kanpur, Koch, Kohima, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, and Thiruvananthapuram will be operational on September 4.

In September 2024, banks will have a total of 15 days of holidays which includes second and fourth Saturdays and four Sundays.

For banks, RBI decides on holidays for every month of the year. RBI's holidays are divided into three categories such as -- Holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act; Holiday under the Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holidays; and Banks' Closing of Accounts. Bank holidays in India 2024, vary from state-to-state and city-to-city.

However, while bank branches are closed in cities during holidays, ATM services are fully operational.