Human papillomavinis (HPV) infection is the main cause of cervical cancers and cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN). Cervical cancer is the second cause of malignant neoplasia and death in women worldwide. Due to the widespread nature of HPV infection and inadequate health care facilities for women, HPV induced cervical cancers remain a major health problem. Several studies have shown that the persistence of genital HPV infections is especially related to the development of cervical cancer. The most common oncogenic HPV genotypes are 16 and 18, causing approximately 70% of all cervical cancers. Multiple risk factors related with cervical cancer such as early age sexual activates, teenage pregnancies, smoking, use of oral contraceptives, having multiple sex partners, hormone replacement therapies and various other unknown factors lead to the onset of the disease. This review is an attempt to discuss the basic mechanisms of oncogenecity of HPV and aimed to make awareness for various diagnostic procedures such as Pap smears screening, HPV DNA testing prove to be an effective way in eradicating the oncogenic potential of HPV.