The indirect electrochemical degradation of industrial effluents has become an attractive method in recent years. This paper deals with the electrochemical degradation of Novacron Deep Red C-D (NDRCD) and Novacron Orange C-RN (NOCRN) reactive azo dyes from aqueous solution using graphite carbon electrodes. The results indicated that initial pH, current density and supporting electrolytes were played an important role in the degradation of dyes. Electrochemical behavior of reactive azo dyes has been studied with cyclic voltammetry in acidic medium using pencil graphite as working electrode. The potentials selected for the two dyes were in the range +1.0 to -0.4 V and +0.5 to -0.2 V. respectively. The CV, UV-Vis and chemical oxygen demand (COD) studies were selected to evaluate the degradation efficiency. The maximum colour removal efficiency of 99% and 97% and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 88% and 82% could be achieved for CDRCD and COCRN, respectively at 7 g L(-1) of NaCl concentration. The LC-MS study revealed the degradation of both the dyes and confirmed that the azo groups and aromatic rings were destroyed. The results revealed the suitability of the present process for the effective degradation of dye effluents. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.