Every Indian bank issues cheques to the same Reserve Bank of India standard, CTS-2010. The size, the field positions, the boxed date and the MICR band sit in the same places whether the leaf says SBI, HDFC or a Gujarat co-operative bank. That is why printing Indian cheques is easier than printing Gulf ones: once your printer lines up one bank's cheque, every other bank's cheque behaves almost the same way.
This guide covers what matters as of October 2026: the CTS-2010 standard, three-month validity, crossing and bearer wording, lakh and crore amounts, clearing, Positive Pay, bounced cheques, old cheque books of merged banks, and how to set up printing.
One standard for every bank: CTS-2010
Indian cheques are cleared through the Cheque Truncation System. The bank where the cheque is deposited scans it and sends the image to the paying bank; the paper never travels. For an image to be read reliably, RBI fixed a common specification, CTS-2010, covering paper quality, watermark, the bank's logo in invisible ink, a void pantograph that shows up on photocopies, and standard placement of every field. Non-CTS cheques stopped being accepted in clearing at the end of 2018.
Two practical consequences follow:
- One shape for all banks. Differences between an ICICI leaf and a Bank of Baroda leaf are mostly the printed design, not where you write. A layout that prints correctly for one bank is a very close starting point for any other.
- The image is what gets checked. Text that drifts over a box line or into the next field is visible on the scan. Neat, consistent printing gets fewer queries than handwriting.
RBI's CTS rules also say no changes or corrections should be made on a cheque other than to the date, and a date change must be signed by the drawer. If the payee name or amount is wrong, use a fresh leaf. Printing removes most of the mistakes that force this.
Validity: three months from the date on the cheque
Since 1 April 2012, banks in India do not pay a cheque presented more than three months after the date written on it. RBI cut the period from six months to three in its circular of 4 November 2011. The three months run from the date on the cheque, not from the day you handed it over, so a post-dated cheque dated next month is valid until three months after that date.
How to write an Indian cheque correctly
- Date: one digit per box, in DD MM YYYY order. The boxes are small, so this is the field that shows a printing misalignment first.
- Payee: the name as it appears on the payee's bank account. There is one line, so use the registered business name, not a long description.
- Amount in words: Indian cheques use lakh and crore, not million. ₹12,50,000 is written "Rupees Twelve Lakh Fifty Thousand Only". Both forms are arithmetically right, but lakh is what payees and bank staff expect to read. Words should start at the left edge and end with "Only" so nothing can be added. Our amount in words tool shows the correct wording for any figure.
- Amount in figures: with Indian digit grouping (12,50,000), written close to the ₹ sign and closed with "/-" or asterisks.
- Crossing: two parallel lines at the top-left corner with "A/C Payee" between them make the cheque payable only into the named payee's account. This is the safe default for business payments. See account payee cheques.
- Bearer: most Indian leaves print "or Bearer" at the end of the payee line. Left as it is, anyone holding the cheque can encash it at the counter. Strike it out to make it an order cheque, or cross the cheque so it can only go into an account.
- MICR band: the strip of magnetic digits along the bottom edge carries the cheque number, bank code and account details. Never write, sign, stamp or print on it. Machines read it, and marks there cause rejections.
Clearing and Positive Pay
CTS moved to continuous clearing on 4 October 2025. Cheques are scanned and presented in batches through the day, and the paying bank confirms or rejects them the same day, so funds are often credited within hours rather than the next working day. A stricter second phase, with a three-hour confirmation deadline, was planned for 3 January 2026, but RBI deferred it until further notice. At the time of writing no new date had been announced. Timings and cut-offs are in our guide to cheque clearing time in India.
Positive Pay has been in force since 1 January 2021. Under the RBI circular of 25 September 2020, banks must offer it for cheques of ₹50,000 and above, and they may make it mandatory for cheques of ₹5,00,000 and above. Many banks have done so. You submit the cheque number, date, payee, amount and account through net banking, the mobile app, SMS or the branch before the cheque is presented. If the presented cheque does not match, it is flagged. Only cheques that went through Positive Pay are accepted under the CTS dispute resolution mechanism, so it is worth using even where it is optional.
Bounced cheques
A cheque returned for insufficient funds can be a criminal offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, after a legal notice and a short payment window. The payee can also pursue a civil claim. The process, deadlines and penalties are covered in our guide to cheque bounce law in India. In practice most returns come from avoidable causes: a stale date, a signature mismatch, a figure that does not match the words, or an overwritten field.
Old cheque books of merged banks are no longer valid
Several public sector banks merged between 2017 and 2020, and their old cheque books were withdrawn afterwards. They will not be accepted now, even if the account itself continues under the new bank.
| Old bank | Now part of | Old cheque books |
|---|---|---|
| State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (and the other SBI associate banks) | State Bank of India | Invalid after 31 December 2017 |
| Oriental Bank of Commerce | Punjab National Bank | Withdrawn from 1 October 2021 |
| Allahabad Bank | Indian Bank | Withdrawn from 1 October 2021 |
| Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank | Union Bank of India | Withdrawn in 2021 |
| Syndicate Bank | Canara Bank | Valid only until 30 June 2021 |
The 2021 withdrawal also covered Dena, Vijaya and United Bank of India books. ChequeMaster still carries layouts for the old names because they are useful for looking up and reprinting records of cheques issued before the merger. For new payments, ask your branch for a current cheque book and use the layout of the bank you bank with today. If that bank (for example Canara Bank or Indian Bank) is not in the list below, build a layout from a scan of your new leaf; because of CTS-2010 the fields will barely need to move.
Premium-tier cheque designs
A few banks give premium account holders differently designed stationery on the same standard paper. ChequeMaster has separate layouts for HDFC Bank Preferred, Union Bank Gold and Standard Chartered Priority. If your cheque looks unlike the standard design for your bank, check whether a tier layout matches before editing anything.
Pre-added Indian bank layouts (37 banks)
ChequeMaster is not limited to these banks. It works with any bank's cheque, in any country. The layouts below are simply the 37 Indian bank layouts that come pre-added, so you can start printing without any setup. For any other bank, build a layout from a scan of a blank leaf in a few minutes, and add as many banks and layouts as you need.
- Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank
- Allahabad Bank
- Andhra Bank
- AU Small Finance Bank
- Axis Bank
- Bank of Maharashtra
- Bank of Baroda
- Central Bank of India
- Citibank
- Corporation Bank
- Cosmos Bank
- DCB Bank
- Equitas Small Finance Bank
- HDFC Bank
- HDFC Bank (Preferred)
- ICICI Bank
- IDBI Bank
- IDFC First Bank
- Indian Overseas Bank
- IndusInd Bank
- Karnataka Bank
- Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Nutan Nagarik Sahakari Bank
- Oriental Bank of Commerce
- Punjab National Bank
- Punjab & Sind Bank
- Saraswat Bank
- State Bank of India
- Standard Chartered (Priority)
- State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur
- Surat Peoples Co-operative Bank
- Syndicate Bank
- The Kalupur Commercial Co-operative Bank
- UCO Bank
- Union Bank of India
- Union Bank (Gold)
- Yes Bank
Setting up ChequeMaster for Indian cheques
- Choose Indian Rupee as the currency, 2 decimal digits and the lakh/crore words system.
- Set the date format to DD/MM/YYYY and switch thousand separators on, so figures print as 12,50,000.
- Pick the print language. Cheques can be printed in English, Hindi or Gujarati; see printing cheques in multiple languages.
- Create a cheque book with your bank's layout and the exact number range on the leaves. Set the A/C Payee text and decide whether to hide the Bearer text.
- Test-print on plain paper, hold it against a real leaf and check the date boxes first. If digits sit on the box lines, adjust the left margin in small steps. More in fixing cheque printing alignment.
ChequeMaster is a Windows desktop app that prints on your bank-issued leaves with any ordinary printer, and works offline once activated. The free edition prints unlimited cheques, so you can test your layout before deciding anything.
