A synthesized sulfonic and carboxylic functional fibrous adsorbent (FFA) was tested for Pb(II) and Cu(II) removal from synthetic as well as battery industry wastewater and compared with monofunctional cation exchange resins viz. IR120 (sulfonic) and IRC50 (carboxylic). Both FFA and IR120 removed 99% of Pb(II), whereas Cu(II) removal was 97 and 92%, respectively, (synthetic mono metal system, pH 5). Conversely, IRC50 exhibited poor metals uptake for either metal. Higher concentration of EDTA than Pb(II) and Cu(II) significantly reduced the metal uptake capacity owing to the formation of metal-EDTA complexes (>97% at pH 5). However, higher concentrations (≥2.5mM) of water-borne cations such as Ca2+ and Na+ exhibited minor reduction (max 13%). FFA exhibited Langmuir capacities of 1.1 and 1.41 times than that of IR120 for Pb(II) and Cu(II), respectively. With an equimolar concentration of Pb(II) in the binary metal system, it was found that FFA was highly selective in comparison to IRC50 and IR120 for Pb(II) uptake over Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), and Ni(II). Both FFA and IR120 also achieved Pb and Cd removal well below allowable discharge limits from battery industry wastewater even with the presence of other metals (cumulative 1.7mM). Moreover, FFA could be regenerated with as high as 92% desorption efficiency.