PIB Fact Check confirmed that a viral gazette declaring every Saturday a holiday for public sector banks is fake. On Thursday, officials said no such order exists from the Finance Ministry. They urged people to verify government news through official channels and avoid sharing unverified documents found on social media platforms.

PIB Fact Check has urged people not to rely on unverified documents circulating on social media and asked them to verify government-related information through official channels before sharing it further.

The Press Information Bureau's (PIB) Fact Check unit has clarified that a purported gazette notification circulating on social media claiming that the central government has declared every Saturday a public holiday for all public sector banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), is "fake".

In a post on X on Thursday, PIB Fact Check stated that no such notification has been issued by the Ministry of Finance's Department of Financial Services. The agency clarified that the document being shared online is fake and does not represent any official government order.

"A Gazette circulating on social media, purportedly issued by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services), claims that the Central Government has declared every Saturday a public holiday for all Public Sector Banks , including SBI. The document being circulated is fake," it said.

Further, it urged people not to rely on unverified documents circulating on social media and asked them to verify government-related information through official channels before sharing it further.

"No such notification has been issued by Finance Ministry declaring every Saturday as public holiday for public sector banks... Flag suspicious content related to the Central Government to PIB Fact Check," it added.

This comes after the document claimed that all public sector banks would remain closed every Saturday following a purported decision by the government.

However, PIB Fact Check has firmly denied the claim and said that no such notification declaring every Saturday as a public holiday for public sector banks has been issued by the Ministry of Finance.

Earlier, the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) deferred its three-day nationwide strike early next week, following an eleventh-hour meeting with the Indian Banks' Association (IBA).