Except for a few days, the majority of these holidays are only applicable for a handful of cities and states at a time. As per RBI's Bank Holiday 2021 list, out of the 21 holidays in October, only 14 of them are holidays because of an occasion, the other seven days are weekend leaves, which encompass Sundays, as well as the second and fourth Saturday of the month.
The RBI mandated holidays are grouped under the categories of ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’, ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act and Real Time Gross Settlement Holiday’ and ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’. In the month of October, the majority of the holidays come under the ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’ classification, however, October 1, the very first holiday on the list, comes under the ‘Banks’ Closing of Accounts’ classification, which is only a holiday for banks located in Gangtok.
The first holiday on the list that falls under the ‘Holiday under Negotiable Instruments Act’ is set to happen on October 2, in the form of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. This national holiday is one of the few that is applicable to all states and cities that the RBI considered for its list of bank holidays next month. The other big holiday that is set to take place and see a large majority of states participate is Durga Puja/Dasara/Dusshera (Vijaya Dashmi), on October 15. This holiday will apply to all banks across India, except those located in Imphal and Shimla.
Full list of holidays for the month of October 2021:
October 1 – Half Yearly Closing of Bank Accounts (Gangtok)
October 2 – Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti (All States)
October 6 – Mahalaya Amavasye (Agartala, Bengaluru, Kolkata)
October 7 - Mera Chaoren Houba of Lainingthou Sanamahi (Imphal)
October 12 – Durga Puja (Maha Saptami) / (Agartala, Kolkata)
October 13 – Durga Puja (Maha Ashtami) / (Agartala, Bhubaneswar, Gangtok, Guwahati, Imphal, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi)
October 14 - Durga Puja/Dussehra (Maha Navami)/Ayutha Pooja (Agartala, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gangtok, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi, Shillong, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram)
October 15 – Durga Puja/Dasara/Dusshera (Vijaya Dashmi) / (All Banks except those in Imphal and Shimla)
October 16 – Durga Puja (Dasain) / (Gangtok)
October 18 – Kati Bihu (Guwahati)
October 19 – Id-E-Milad/Eid-e-Miladunnabi/Milad-i-Sherif (Prophet Mohammad’s Birthday)/Baravafat / (Ahmedabad, Belapur, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Kanpur, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram)
October 20 – Maharishi Valmiki’s Birthday/Lakshmi Puja/Id-E-Milad (Agartala, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Shimla)
October 22 – Friday following Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi (Jammu, Srinagar)
October 26 – Accession Day (Jammu, Srinagar)
Weekend Bank Holidays in October:
October 3 - Sunday
October 9 – 2nd Saturday
October 10 - Sunday
October 17 - Sunday
October 23 – 4th Saturday
October 24 – Sunday
October 31 - Sunday
While the bank branches will remain closed on these days, mobile and internet banking will remain functional as usual. Customers can make transactions through online modes.
