Understanding Restricted Holidays: Are They Mandatory and Do They Affect Casual Leave?

Understanding Restricted Holidays

Restricted holidays are optional holidays that employees can choose to take, based on their personal preferences or religious beliefs. These holidays are not compulsory for employers to provide, and they are typically not included in the calculation of casual leave. Instead, they offer flexibility for employees to observe holidays that are significant to them without impacting their regular leave entitlements.

Regards

Understanding Restricted Holidays (RH)

A Restricted Holiday (RH), also known as an Optional Holiday, is a type of leave that employees can choose to take based on personal, religious, or cultural preferences.

Key Points:

✅ Not mandatory for all employees—unlike national/public holidays.

✅ Organizations provide a list of RHs, and employees can choose a fixed number (e.g., 2 RHs per year).

✅ Common in India, especially in diverse workplaces where employees may observe different festivals.

Example:

If Eid or Good Friday is on the RH list, a Hindu employee might skip it, while a Muslim or Christian employee might opt to take it.

Generally, RH is given by an employer to their employees in addition to casual leave for two main festivals that they can avail of in a year.

Regards,
Parvati

Normally, PL and CL will be granted to all employees. Weekly holidays and Closed Holidays are also declared by the employer. In addition, there will be a Restricted Holidays list published by the government for its employees. From that list, employees can avail any 2 days during their festival which are not declared as closed holidays. This practice is available only in government services and is not in practice in the private sector.

Regards

Hello Neharika Khanna,

Understanding Restricted Holidays

First things first, restricted holidays, also termed optional holidays, are types of holidays that are optional for employees. It completely depends on an employee if he or she wants to take that specific holiday or not. In addition to this, employees have the right to choose a specific number of optional holidays in a year.

The whole purpose of restricted holidays is to foster cultural pluralism in our country.

Availability of Restricted Holidays

Now, it is important to note that not every employer across India gives restricted holidays to their workforce. They are typically given to employees working in the government sector. However, some private organizations also provide such holidays. That means it is up to you.

Furthermore, restricted holidays are not counted as casual leaves.

I hope you now have a clear understanding of restricted holidays.