This paper reports the sorption study of Direct Yellow12 (DY) to describe the suitability of low cost adsorbents prepared from sugar mill waste bagasse, rice mill waste rice husk and textile industry waste cloths for its effective removal. The adsorption studies have been performed by varying parameters such as adsorbent dosage, pH of the dye solution, contact time and temperature. A significant increase in percentage removal of DY with increase in dosage of all the carbons is observed. The maximum removal of dye is obtained under acidic conditions, in particular, at pH 4. The equilibrium adsorption data obtained are used to calculate Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms and thermodynamic parameters such as Delta G degrees, Delta H degrees, Delta S degrees, E-a and S* are calculated in order to understand the nature of sorption process. The sorption process is found to be controlled by pseudo-second-order and pore diffusion models.