Jharkhand Public Holidays 2026

Understanding Jharkhand's Holiday Calendar in 2026

Jharkhand publishes its 2026 holidays in the Jharkhand Gazette Extraordinary No. 542 of 15 December 2025, under notification No. 10/Sa-Av-03-03/2025 Ka-7244 of the Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha Department. The structure is two schedules rather than a gazetted-and-restricted pair.

Schedule-1 carries 21 holidays declared under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. Schedule-2 carries 13 more declared by executive order, on which all offices under the State Government and all revenue offices remain closed. Together they give 34 declared closures. Schedule-3 is a single bank annual account closing day on 1 April, which the notification states does not apply to government establishments.

There is no restricted or optional holiday list at all. Jharkhand declares everything outright, which makes it simpler to administer than most states but leaves employees observing anything outside the 34 days with no optional-holiday route. For payroll, commercial establishments fall under the Jharkhand Shops and Establishments Act.

National Holidays in Jharkhand

Republic Day on Monday, January 26, Independence Day on Saturday, August 15, and Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday on Friday, October 2 are mandatory, all in Schedule-1. Ambedkar Jayanti on Tuesday, April 14 is separately gazetted, which many neighbouring states do not do.

The notification records that the Secretariat and its attached offices run a five-day working week while regional offices run a six-day week, so the two carry different effective closure counts from the same list.

Jharkhand-Specific Holidays

Nine occasions fall on Sundays in 2026 and are handled by an explicit rule rather than being dropped: Sant Ravidas Jayanti on February 1, Maha Shivratri on February 15, Sarhul (Phulkhusi) on March 22, World Tribal Day on August 9, Sharadiya Navratri and Kalash Sthapan on October 11, Dussehra Mahasaptami on October 18, Deepavali on November 8, and both Bhagwan Birsa Munda Jayanti with State Foundation Day and the evening arghya of Chhath on November 15. The notification declines to declare a separate holiday for these, but states that establishments where Sunday is a normal working day shall observe them.

That rule is the most consequential thing in the Jharkhand notification for private employers. Diwali does not appear as a declared holiday in 2026 because it lands on a Sunday, and neither does the state's own Foundation Day. An establishment running a six-day week is entitled to both; one running a five-day week is not, and neither reading is an error.

Chhath is split across two days by the arghya. The evening arghya on Sunday November 15 falls under the Sunday rule, while the morning arghya on Monday November 16 is the gazetted closure. Jharkhand is one of the few states to make this distinction explicit.

Sarhul, the Adivasi spring festival, shares its declared day with Id-ul-Fitr on Saturday March 21, with Sarhul (Phulkhusi) on the Sunday that follows. Karma Puja works the same way: gazetted on Tuesday September 22 in Schedule-1, with Karma Puja (Phulkhusi) on Wednesday September 23 by executive order.

The tribal and regional observances are spread across both schedules. Sohrai takes two days on January 12 and 13, Hul Divas on June 30 marks the Santhal rebellion of 1855, and Pandit Raghunath Murmu's birth day shares May 1 with Buddha Purnima. World Tribal Day and Birsa Munda Jayanti both fall on Sundays this year.

Restricted Holidays in Jharkhand

Jharkhand's 2026 notification carries no restricted or optional holiday list. Both schedules are full closures for state government and revenue offices, and there is no quota from which employees select.

This is the same pattern as Nagaland: a moderately long declared list with no optional category. It simplifies administration, but it means an employee observing anything outside the 34 declared days must use earned leave, whether that is Onam, Bihu, Ganesh Chaturthi in a year when it is not listed, or a community festival specific to a migrant workforce.

The compensating flexibility is the Sunday rule, which effectively hands six-day-week establishments nine additional holidays that five-day-week offices do not get. Employers should decide and document which basis they are on rather than leaving it to local practice, because the difference between the two readings is substantial.

HR & Payroll Guidance for Jharkhand, 2026

The Sunday rule is what to get right. Nine occasions including Diwali and State Foundation Day are not separately declared because they land on Sundays, but are holidays for establishments where Sunday is a working day. Whether your Jharkhand sites observe 34 days or 43 depends entirely on your working-week basis, and the notification is explicit that both are correct in their own context.

Do not expect a restricted list. Aggregators sometimes invent one for Jharkhand by reclassifying Schedule-2 as optional, which is wrong. Schedule-2 days are full closures by executive order rather than employee-selected days.

September and the second half of October are the constrained stretches: Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Vishwakarma Puja, and two Karma Puja days in September, then Mahaashtami and Mahanavami in October. November carries Govardhan Puja, Bhaiya Duj, Chhath, and Guru Nanak Jayanti.

The Secretariat and regional offices run different working weeks under the same notification, so a Ranchi Secretariat-facing process and a district-office-facing one will not have the same availability. Confirm which applies before committing to turnaround times that depend on government counterparties.

Engage HRMS models Jharkhand's two schedules and the Sunday rule as a working-week-dependent calendar, so five-day and six-day establishments mapped to the state resolve the nine Sunday occasions correctly without maintaining two lists by hand.