Background: An ongoing autonomic nervous system imbalance is a common and significant risk factor for fatal cardiovascular events as well as other severe cardiovascular events. The present study was conducted to assess heart rate variability in hypertensive and normotensive individuals. Materials & Methods: 72 hypertensive patients of both genderswere put in group I and normotensive subjects in group II. HRV such as total power (TP), normalized low frequency power (LFnu), normalized high frequency power (HFnu), ratio of low frequency power to high frequency power (LF-HF ratio), standard deviation of normal-to-normal RR intervals (SDNN), root mean square successive difference (rMSSD) and the proportion of NN50 to the total number of NN intervals (pNN50) were recorded. Results: Group I had 35 males and 37 females and group II had 36 males and 36 females.SDNN (ms) was 152.2 in group I and 140.6 in group II, pNN50 was 13.5 in group I and 10.4 in group II, rMSSD (ms) was 45.6 in group I and 40.2 in group II. LFnu was 76.0 in group I and 85.4 in group II, HFnu was 53.2 in group I and 37.5 in group II and LF/HF ration was 2.57 in group I and 3.96 in group II. The difference was significant (P< 0.05). Conclusion: When compared to participants with normotension, hypertension patients showed reduced parasympathetic modulation and heart rate variability.