National calendar legal binding for all banks

RBI said in its statement: "As you are aware that Government of India has accepted Saka Samvat as National Calendar with effect from March 22, 1957, and all Government statutory orders, notifications, Acts of Parliament, etc. bear both the dates i.e., Saka Samvat as well as Gregorian Calendar. Therefore, a cheque written in Hindi and bearing a date in Hindi is a valid instrument."

Mumbai: A gentleman wrote his cheque for withdrawing money from a Public-Sector Bank (PSB). But it was out rightly rejected by the bank. The reason was that his cheque stating that date mentioned on the cheque was incorrect. Because he wrote Indian system of date. Like 5 Chaitra 1944. Later he complained to RBI and it was then the bank had to accept the cheque.

It was way back on 21 January 2016 when Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked the banks to accept cheques bearing a date as per National Calendar (Saka Samvat) for payment.

The RBI had said in its statement, "As you are aware that Government of India has accepted Saka Samvat as National Calendar with effect from March 22, 1957, and all Government statutory orders, notifications, Acts of Parliament, etc. bear both the dates i.e., Saka Samvat as well as Gregorian Calendar. Therefore, a cheque written in Hindi and bearing a date in Hindi is a valid instrument."

All co-operative banks are therefore advised that they should accept cheques bearing a date as per National Calendar (Saka Samvat) for payment, if otherwise found in order. You are further advised to ascertain the Gregorian calendar date corresponding to the National Saka calendar in order to avoid payment of stale cheques, the RBI statement adds.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Dr Arvind Ranade, who was a scientist at Vigyan Prasar and now, appointed as the executive director of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), says: "We are sensitising people about the issue by organising awareness campaigns all across the country."

Not to mention that India came up with a national calendar known as the 'National Calendar of India', which was passed through an Act of Parliament in 1957 and implemented from March 22, 1957, and in Indian terms Saur Chaitra 01, 1879, onwards. Even though such a calendar is in place, the common public and most government officials are unaware of it.

Abhay Marathe, an activist, says: "As an Indian, I feel proud to have so many national identities like a national bird 'Peacock', national flag 'Tricolour', national flower 'Lotus' and national anthem 'Jan-Gan-Man'. On similar lines, the nation should have a national calendar of its own and we have been fighting for the same for quite some time." There are three types of calendars; one is the solar calendar based mainly on the seasons, e.g. Tamil, Bengali and Kerala, second is the lunar calendar where seasons keep on changing through the year, e.g. Islamic calendar.

And the third one is the combination of both called Luni-Solar Calendar wherein seasons and motion of the moon are adjusted that it keeps track of both the movements, e.g. Vikram Samvat and Shaka Samvat.

It was in this context that on Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Vijnana Bharati had organised a two-day conference and exhibition at Ujjain and Dongla from Vaisakh 02 and 03, 1944 (April 22 & 23, 2022) with the Ministry of Culture and more than ten scientific and social organisations of the country. One of the dedicated social organisations Rashtriya Dindarshika Prachar Manch from Aurangabad has been working in the same field of popularising and publishing this calendar for the last ten years. The British adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 by shifting to September 14 after September 02 in 1752 with an omission of 11 days in the then prevailing calendar. Owing to the British colonial rule, India was under compulsion to use Gregorian Calendar. India continued to use it until the New Calendar was introduced in 1957.

Despite various anomalies, the Gregorian Calendar is the only calendar used globally. In the most advanced and scientific era, it is apathy that a large community uses such an illogical and unscientific calendar. We can't say much about the others. Still, at least we Indians should use it when we have our own scientifically suited and astronomically vibrant calendar in the form of- the After Independence, the spirit of self-respect, self-dignity and self-confidence was peaked. The then political, social and scientific leaders were the first to define identity symbols. At that time, it was noticed that India had more than 30 different calendrical systems in place, which were used rigorously. To consolidate the efforts and have an errorless calendar, the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, constituted the Calendar Reform Committee under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in 1952. The responsibility was shouldered to Dr Meghnad Saha, a well-known astrophysicist of high reputation, as the committee chairman. The other members of the committee were learned Prof A C Banarjee (Former Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad University), astronomer Dr KL Dafftari from Pune, Astrometrists J S Karandikar (Ex-editor of Kesari) from Pune, Prof RV Vaidya (Prof of Mathematics from Vikram University)

Ujjain, Pandit Gorakh Prasad from Allahabad, Prof NC Lahiri from Kolkata. The critical task for the committee included:

The committee worked for continuous four years from 1952 to 1956 and developed a Calendar on the scientific and cultural characters. Its salient features include that National Calendar of India will be Solar Calendar.

The report was finally passed through the Act of Parliament in 1956, and the Calendar was adopted for use by the people of India from 22 March 1957 as Saur Caitra 01, 1879.

Unfortunately, it remained restricted to certain government agencies like All-India Radio, Doordarshan, Government Gazettes, International Agreements and certain Newspapers only. People at large have not accepted the calendar, and neither has been the National Calendar

implemented by the government mandatorily. Therefore, despite the scientific base of the National Calendar, it has remained unnoticed.