Collar rot, caused by Sclerotium rolfsii, causes devastating seedling mortality in chickpea cultivation. This study evaluated the biocontrol efficacy of nine native Bacillus spp. isolates (B1–B9) from Chhattisgarh using a spore-selective heat-treatment isolation method and a talc-powder bioformulation (9 × 10⁸ cfu/ml). In in vitro dual-culture screening, isolate B6 demonstrated the highest antagonistic efficiency, inhibiting S. rolfsii mycelial growth by 72.22%, which was statistically at par with isolate B3 (71.48%). In glass-house pot trials using infested soil, seed treatment with isolate B6 drastically suppressed the disease, reducing plant mortality to 17.03% (a 79.10% decrease over control) compared to the untreated control (81.54%). Furthermore, B6 significantly promoted plant growth, achieving the highest germination rate (96.66%) and plant vigour index (4233.70). These findings indicate that native Bacillus isolates B6 and B3 serve as powerful bio-control agents for sustainable chickpea collar rot management.