10.22376/ijpbs.2019.10.1.p1-12 Volume 9 Issue 1 2018 (January-March) Azo dyes are recalcitrant to degradation due to high degree of chemical complexity, biological and photochemical stability. Disposal of treated dye effluent by physical and chemical methods are not economical. Incomplete removal of azo dyes, their toxic byproducts, results in significant amount of sludge accumulation, leading to secondary pollution problems. However, microbial and enzymatic decolouration is a cost effective process. On this basis, azodye effluent and soil samples from the textile dyes affected region were collected and they were screened for the presence of azo dye (Methylene blue and Congo red) degrading bacteria and fungi by direct plating and enrichment isolation. Enrichment cultures showed promising azo dye degrading strains. Among the efficient cultures, two bacterial cultures namely strain B1( lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus subtilis lessThan /i greaterThan ),strain VGVR-06( lessThan i greaterThan Pseudomonas aeruginosa lessThan /i greaterThan ) and two fungal cultures namely strain AF-1( lessThan i greaterThan Aspergillus flavus lessThan /i greaterThan ),strain AN-1( lessThan i greaterThan Aspergillus niger lessThan /i greaterThan ) were further phylogenetically identified. Among the above, strain B1 ( lessThan i greaterThan Bacillus subtilis lessThan /i greaterThan ) was promising azoreductase enzyme producer. Further the presence of the enzyme was confirmed through azoreductase enzyme assay and by sequencing and amplifying the azoreductase gene from those bacteria. VIJAYANANDINI GOVINDAN AND VIJAYA RAMESH Decolouration, Azodye, Degrading, Bacillus subtilis, Azoreductase. 64-71