Puducherry's Home Department has formally declared 9 November 2026 a holiday for banking institutions, including cooperative banks, across the Union Territory and named 21 November a compensatory working day under G.O.Ms.No.108.
What the Puducherry government has officially ordered
The Home Department of the Government of Puducherry issued G.O.Ms.No.108 on 4 November 2026. It declares Monday, 9 November 2026 a holiday on account of Deepavali for government offices, government undertakings, boards and educational institutions, as well as all banking institutions, including cooperative banks, across all regions of the Union Territory of Puducherry. This is a notified territorial holiday, not an all-India instruction to close bank branches.
The order refers to an earlier annual holiday notification, G.O.Ms.No.73 dated 11 November 2025. That earlier calendar recorded Deepavali on Sunday, 8 November 2026. The new order adds the following Monday as a declared holiday and provides for a compensatory working day.
What does the order say about 21 November?
Paragraph 2 of G.O.Ms.No.108 states that Saturday, 21 November 2026 will be a compensatory working day in place of the 9 November holiday. The same order states that the new holiday is covered under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Bank branches and employees should follow their institution’s implementation and attendance instructions for the compensatory day rather than guessing operating hours from a general headline.
As 21 November falls on a third Saturday, it is important not to describe the order as introducing an additional nationwide Saturday banking day. The order’s effect is confined to the Union Territory concerned; any institution-specific operating arrangements should be confirmed through the bank’s official communication.
Which branches and employees are covered?
The government’s wording is broad: it expressly includes banking institutions and cooperative banks in all regions of Puducherry. Accordingly, this is relevant to employees, branch managers, operations teams and customers of institutions operating in that Union Territory, including public-sector and regional rural bank branches where applicable. It does not establish a new holiday for the same bank’s branches located in other states.
For branch planning, officers should verify the bank’s regional holiday circular, staffing and security arrangements, customer notices, payment-processing cut-offs and the way attendance will be handled on 21 November. The order itself does not set out bank-specific rosters, ATM arrangements, or the operational status of individual digital channels. Those details must not be invented.
Publication dates and current status
Official issue date: 4 November 2026. Holiday date: 9 November 2026. Compensatory working day stated in the order: 21 November 2026. The official website lists the order and its PDF, and The Times of India reported the banking-institution coverage on 5 November 2026 at 8:39 PM IST. The notification says it is to be published in the next official Gazette issue; publication in that issue was not independently confirmed during this review.
This report explains the signed government order as inspected; it is not an assertion that any named individual bank has already circulated a separate implementation memo. If a branch has a conflicting local schedule, staff should request the institution’s authoritative clarification rather than rely on social-media holiday lists.
Sources and References
- Official government page for G.O.Ms.No.108 — Government of Puducherry, 4 November 2026.
- G.O.Ms.No.108: full official holiday order (PDF) — Home Department, Government of Puducherry, 4 November 2026.
- Nov 9 declared public holiday in Puducherry — The Times of India, 5 November 2026.
Please consult the cited sources and check the exact applicability of any legal or employment change. Corrections are welcomed.
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