The objective of this study was to investigate the association, if any, between the interleukin‐17F (7488T>C) (rs763780) polymorphism and susceptibility to leprosy and to elucidate the relationship between IL‐17F genotypes and clinical profile of the disease. DNA was extracted from the peripheral venous blood of leprosy cases (n = 140), which were classified as per WHO classification into paucibacillary (PB) (n = 53) and multibacillary (MB) (n = 87) categories and healthy controls (n = 84) without any signs and symptoms of leprosy. The IL‐17F (7488 T/C) polymorphism was genotyped using amplification refractory mutation system – polymerase chain reaction (Allele‐specific amplification). In both PB and MB categories of leprosy cases, the homozygous TT genotype frequency was significantly higher than that of the healthy controls (78.70% vs. 29.76%, P < 0.05). The heterozygous TC genotype was higher in the controls than in the leprosy cases (57.14% vs. 17.68%, P < 0.05). TT genotype was more associated with the type 1 reactional states and tuberculoid/borderline tuberculoid groups in leprosy than the TC genotype. This study reveals that the IL‐17F (7488T>C) single‐nucleotide polymorphism is associated with susceptibility to leprosy and polymorphism confers decrease in risk of contracting leprosy in the north Indian cohort.