RBI rebuts social media rumours on closure of 9 banks
Mumbai, Sep 25: Rebutting social media rumours swiftly, the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday said no commercial banks are going to be shut.
Finance secretary Rajiv Kumar described such social media messages as "mischievous" saying the government was in process of strengthening public sector banks by infusing capital in them.
"Reports appearing in some sections of social media about the RBI closing down certain commercial banks are false," the central bank said in a statement.
Messages are circulating in various social media platforms that nine banks will be closed down permanently by the RBI and appeals being made to public to withdraw their money from them.
"No question of closing any #PSB, which are articles of faith. Rather Govt is strengthening PSBs with reforms and infusion of capital to better serve its customers," Kumar said in a tweet.
The messages are being circulated a day after the RBI placed restrictions on withdrawals in the crippled Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), thus affecting lakhs of customers.
The message i.e going viral on the social media, about nine banks will be closed down permanently by the RBI and appeals being made to public to withdraw their money from them.
Most of the banks named in the messages are those that have been either merged with other banks or are in the process of being merged.
Last month, the government had announced that 10 public sector banks would be merged into four.
Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will be merged with Punjab National Bank, while Syndicate Bank will become part of Canara Bank.
Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be merged with Union Bank of India, and Allahabad Bank with Indian Bank.
The government has already merged Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda.
Also, the IDBI Bank was taken over the public sector insurance behemoth LIC. Recently, the government announced to infuse capital into the IDBI Bank.
Reports appearing in some sections of social media about RBI closing down certain commercial banks are false.
— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) September 25, 2019
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Madras HC strikes down TN order limiting maternity leave for third child
Chennai: The Madras High Court has set aside a Tamil Nadu government order restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, holding the move to be contrary to established legal principles.
A division bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and N Senthil Kumar ruled that there was no justification to treat third pregnancies differently from the first two, observing that the physical and medical requirements of childbirth remain the same irrespective of the number of pregnancies, as reported by The News Minute.
According to a report published by Live Law, the court was hearing a petition filed by Shayee Nisha, a staff member of the district judiciary in Villupuram, whose request for maternity leave from February 2026 to February 2027 had been curtailed to three months by authorities citing the March 13, 2026 government order.
Quashing the decision of the Principal District Judge and related directions asking her to resume duty, the bench directed that she be granted maternity leave on par with that provided for earlier pregnancies, allowing up to 365 days.
The court noted that both the Supreme Court of India and earlier rulings of the High Court had consistently held that maternity benefits cannot be denied for a third child. Holding the restriction to be unsustainable, the court directed authorities to process maternity leave applications without discrimination based on the number of pregnancies.
It also pointed out that a similar issue had been addressed by a division bench earlier this year, which had disapproved denial of maternity leave in such cases and directed that its ruling be circulated among judicial officers. Despite this, the state issued the impugned order, the bench observed.
