Aims: To isolate the potential micro-organism for the degradation of textile disperse dye Brown 3 REL and to find out the reaction mechanism. Methods and Results: 16S rDNA analysis revealed an isolate from textile effluent contaminated soil as Bacillus sp. VUS and was able to degrade (100%) dye Brown 3REL within 8 h at static anoxic condition. A significant increase in the activities of lignin peroxidase, laccase and NADH-DCIP reductase was observed up to complete decolourization of Brown 3REL. The optimum temperature required for degradation was 40 degrees C and pH 6.5-12.0. Phyto-toxicity and chemical oxygen demand revealed nontoxic products of dye degradation. The biodegradation was monitored by UV-VIS, FTIR spectroscopy and HPLC. The final products 6,8-dichloro-quinazoline-4-ol and cyclopentanone were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This Bacillus sp. VUS also decolourized (80%) textile dye effluent within 12 h. Conclusions: This study suggests that Bacillus sp. VUS could be a useful tool for textile effluent treatment. Significance and Impact of the Study: The newly isolated Bacillus sp. VUS decolourized 16 textile dyes and textile dye effluent also. It achieved complete biodegradation of Brown 3REL. Phytotoxicity study demonstrated no toxicity of the biodegraded products for plants with respect to Triticum aestivum and Sorghum bicolor.