India Public Holidays 2027: Complete List and HR Guide

Holiday dates drive rosters, overtime costs, and payroll cutoffs. If you publish your 2027 list late or wrong, you invite disputes and rework.

What counts as a public holiday in India for 2027

India does not have one single nationwide holiday calendar beyond a few national dates. Employers must track three layers: central government holidays, state notifications, and company policy for optional days.

• National holidays: Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti. These are non negotiable paid holidays across India.
• Closed or gazetted holidays: Declared by the central government and by each state. Many are religious or cultural and follow a lunar calendar.
• Restricted or optional holidays: Employees can choose a limited number from a broader list. Your company decides the size of the pool and the number employees can take.

On top of that, state Shops and Establishments Acts and the Factories Act set rules for minimum holidays, substitution, display of notices, and compensation if people work on a holiday. Since several states are yet to fully switch to the new labour codes, your 2027 obligations still flow from state laws in force. For context on the rollout gaps, see this explainer on why states have delayed labour code rules.

2027 India public holiday list: fixed dates you can lock now

Many festivals move with the lunar calendar, so do not freeze dates until state notifications arrive. You can, however, lock fixed date holidays early and plan rosters around them.

Variable date festivals to track for 2027

These are typically part of state lists and the central closed holiday list. Add them to your watchlist and confirm once notifications are issued.

• Holi
• Maha Shivaratri
• Ram Navami
• Mahavir Jayanti
• Good Friday
• Id ul Fitr and Id ul Zuha
• Buddha Purnima
• Muharram
• Janmashtami
• Ganesh Chaturthi
• Onam
• Vishwakarma Puja
• Mahatma Basava Jayanti or similar regional observances
• Dussehra or Vijaya Dashami
• Milad un Nabi or Id e Milad
• Diwali or Deepavali
• Guru Nanak Jayanti

State specific holidays also include days like Pongal and Thiruvalluvar Day in Tamil Nadu, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Ugadi in multiple southern states, Bihu in Assam, and local foundation days. These require location wise handling.

Compliance rules that affect your holiday list

While details vary by state, most Acts require you to provide national holidays plus a minimum number of festival holidays, publish the list, and give compensatory benefits if staff work on a declared holiday.

If you run continuous operations, roster design matters as much as the list itself. For example, 24x7 retail and food outlets in Gujarat need careful shift planning around public holidays. For a refresher on that operating model, see this practical guide to 24x7 shops and restaurants in Gujarat.

Payroll and attendance impact to plan now

Holiday mistakes spill into payroll quickly. Close the gaps before you publish the calendar.

• Payroll calendar: Align holiday heavy weeks with your processing timeline so bank closures do not delay salary credit. See the core payroll processing steps in India to pressure test your cycle.
• Attendance rules: Define how holidays interact with leave and weekly offs. Many companies apply a sandwich rule, but it is a policy choice. Put it in writing and train managers.
• Comp-off and overtime: Document when employees get compensatory off versus overtime. Configure your HRMS to apply this automatically.
• Holiday in the middle of leave: Clarify whether a public holiday inside a leave spell counts as leave or not. Be consistent across locations.
• Proof and regularization: If teams work on a holiday, collect shift approvals early. A simple regularization workflow helps. Here is a primer on attendance regularization you can adapt.
• Payslip clarity: Show holiday pay, overtime, and comp off encashment cleanly. If employees flag errors, use a checklist like this guide on verifying payslips and fixing issues.

Multi location and remote teams: how to avoid conflicts

If your company is registered in one state but employs people in multiple states or remote workers, follow the rule in the worker’s place of work. That includes election holidays and local observances.

• Segment your holiday master by work location. A Mumbai holiday should not auto apply to a Chennai based remote engineer unless your policy grants pan India parity.
• Use a small but meaningful restricted holiday pool so diverse teams can observe regional or faith based days without shutting the whole company.
• Coordinate with clients and vendors whose offices close on different dates. Production and support teams should have a fallback roster for high traffic days.

Employer timeline: publish your 2027 list without last minute churn

Work backwards from January 2027. Most HR teams can finish this in the last quarter of 2026 if they frame it as a short project.

1. Map your footprint: list every state where you have offices, plants, retail outlets, or fully remote employees.
2. Create a baseline: take your 2026 list and mark what changed mid year. This gives you a realistic draft for 2027.
3. Track notifications: monitor the Department of Personnel and Training list and each state’s 2027 holiday notification. Many arrive in the second half of 2026.
4. Draft the holiday master: lock the fixed date holidays, add expected variable festivals, and mark items as To be notified where dates depend on lunar calendars.
5. Plan rosters for critical functions: for customer support, warehousing, and field service, line managers must mark coverage on major festivals.
6. Get sign offs: finance for overtime budgets, operations for coverage, and legal or compliance for state specific rules.
7. Publish and display: share the approved list on email and chat, post it on the notice board, and store a dated PDF for inspections.
8. Configure systems: update your HRMS holiday master, attendance rules, and payroll calendar. If you struggle with last mile adoption, this piece on why employees still use WhatsApp after HRMS has tips to drive usage.

Edge cases and real world scenarios

Holiday lands on the weekly off

Most states permit a substituted holiday when a declared holiday coincides with the weekly off. Declare the substitute in advance and record it the same way you would any other holiday.

Essential operations on Diwali or Eid

For manufacturing lines or data centers, you may need people to work on major festivals. Publish the duty roster early, collect written consent where required, and apply overtime or comp off as per law and policy. Keep a separate tracker for comp off redemption so it does not linger for months.

Remote employee in a different state

If your Delhi office is open but your remote employee in Kerala has a notified holiday, apply the Kerala holiday to that employee. This is also why your holiday master should be location aware, not one flat list.

Election day holiday

When the state election authority declares a paid holiday for polling, apply it to eligible employees in that constituency. Retain the official order in your compliance folder. If business continuity requires work on that day, offer a substitution consistent with the order.

Avoid attendance disputes: policy clarity helps

Two issues usually trigger grievances. First, whether a public holiday inside a planned leave counts as leave. Second, whether sandwich rules apply around holidays. Decide both upfront and state them in the leave policy. Train approvers to apply the rule consistently, then use an audit friendly regularization process for exceptions. If you are building that workflow, this guide to attendance regularization mails and policy templates can save time.

Checklist to close this week

• Lock the six fixed date holidays above and add them to your 2027 draft.
• List every location where you have employees, including remote addresses.
• Create a watchlist of variable festivals and assign one owner per state to track notifications.
• Decide your restricted holiday pool size and employee entitlement, then put it in the policy.
• Dry run payroll weeks that fall on or right after big holidays using the standard payroll sequence.
• Publish a tentative calendar to managers with a To be notified tag on moving festivals so they can plan rosters now and dates later.

Key takeaway

You do not need to wait for every last state notification to start. Freeze the fixed dates, define clear rules for optional holidays, plan coverage for critical teams, and keep a simple trail of decisions. Finalize and publish by December 2026, then update once or twice as 2027 festival dates are officially gazetted. That cadence keeps payroll clean and employees informed without last minute churn.

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