Service quality has become a strategic determinant of competitiveness, customer retention, and trust in retail banking. This study comparatively examines consumer perceptions of service quality in public and private sector banks in the southern region of Haryana, India. The study is grounded in the SERVQUAL framework and focuses on five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 592 bank customers across Gurugram, Rewari, and Mahendergarh. The empirical analysis used descriptive statistics, principal component factor analysis, reliability analysis, and independent-samples t-tests. The measurement instrument demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.720 for 23 items). Six extracted components accounted for 65.187% of the initial variance. None of the five SERVQUAL dimensions showed a statistically significant difference between public and private sector customers at the conventional 5% level. Public-sector customers reported marginally higher mean scores for tangibility and reliability, whereas private-sector customers reported a marginally higher responsiveness score; assurance and empathy were also slightly higher for public-sector customers, but these differences were not statistically significant. Customer-choice analysis indicated that brand image and marketing and efficiency and speed were highly valued. The study also identifies employee training and development as a major improvement priority. The findings suggest that sector ownership alone does not adequately explain perceived service quality in southern Haryana and that banks should compete through continuous improvements in customer experience, technology, process efficiency, and employee capability.