cts-2010 standard cheque book

Your Non CTS cheques will be valid upto 31 Jul 2013 against earlier deadline of 31 Mar 2013. It means an extension of 4 months. See RBI Circular in this regard

Update: RBI has extended the mandatory implementation of CTS-2010 based cheque system by 3 months and old cheques will be valid till 31 Mar 2013.

As a measure to standardize and enhance security features in cheque forms Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) mandated all banks to implement CTS-2010 standard cheque book  wef 01 Jan 2013. If you are having a  cheque book issued by your bank before Aug 2011 then you need to get new CTS-2010 standard cheque book with the new features.

You can also watch a sample check video

Is your cheque leaf valid after 31 Dec 2012?

The main purpose of new standard is to make cheque clearing faster, safe and hard to tamper with. There were no major changes in the cheque clearing system after the introduction of MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) in eighties.

The introduction of new cheque standards ‘CTS 2010’ was warranted on account of several developments in the cheque clearing. The new cheque standard “CTS 2010” with set of minimum security features would ensure uniformity across all cheque forms issued by banks in the country and also help presenting banks while scrutinising / recognising cheques of drawee banks in an image-based processing scenario. The homogeneity in security features is expected to act as a deterrent against cheque frauds, while the standardisation of field placements on cheque forms would enable straight-through-processing both under CTS and MICR clearing.

If you already do not have cheque book with new features, contact your bank for getting a new  cts-2010 standard cheque book before 31 Dec 2012. Even Post Dated Cheques issued which are due after 31 Dec 2012 will not be honoured and need to be replaced with new cheque leaf.