The banking sector plays a very important role in the development of an economy. A sound and healthy banking system are very important for an economy. Non-performing assets (NPAs) are the best indicator of the health of the banking industry i.e. it reflects the performance of the banks. Banking sector NPAs have become a major concern for the Indian economy. NPA has a direct impact on the liquidity, solvency, and profitability of the banks. The present study deals with the performance of Indian public and private sector banks with special reference to their NPAs. A comparative analysis of the private and public sectors is made based on the percentage of NPAs to total gross advances and the percentage of sector-wise average NPAs. NPAs are also categorized into priority and non‐priority sectors for purpose of analysis. The study concludes that NPAs in public sector banks are higher than the private sector banks or public and private sectors Bank of India has maximum average NPAs and HDFC Bank has a minimum and Bank of India has maximum NPAs in the non-priority sector while YES Bank has minimum average NPAs in priority sector.