SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government has sacked its Additional Advocate General, Vishal Sharma and Deputy Advocate General, Parimoksh Seth "with immediate effect" in connection with beef ban issue.

Chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has called a meeting of senior party leaders at his Fairview residence today evening to discuss the controversy that has erupted in the state following the J&K High Court order on "strict implementation" of the beef ban.

The issue has brought the coalition partners in the state - the BJP and the PDP - at loggerheads over each other with the upcoming autumn session of the state legislature likely to witness a lot of drama over the archaic law which bans the sale and consumption of beef in the state.

The government, vide order numbers 2843-LDA and 2844 LD (A) of 2015, disengaged services of Seth and Sharma on Tuesday. “In partial modification of government order no 1574-LD (A), the service of Parmoksh Seth as Deputy Advocate General Jammu and Vishal Sharma as Additional Advocate General are hereby dispensed with immediately,” the order, issued by the State Law Department, reads.

The department, which is headed by PDP's Basharat Bukhari, is believed to have taken action against the right-wing lawyers appointed by the government last month after being told to do so by "top PDP leadership".

The decision to sack the two lawyers has, however, evoked resentment in the BJP, the PDP's coalition partner, with the state BJP spokesperson, Sunil Sethi, hitting out at the party for taking "unilateral action" against the duo.

"We were not consulted on the issue. It is an immature decision which can have serious ramifications in the state. Our party leadership will take up the issue with the chief minister," Sethi told The Citizen.

Parimoksh Seth, whose father Onkar Seth was part of Jammu State Morcha launched by the RSS in 2002, is the petitioner in the beef ban case at the Jammu wing of J&K High Court.

The court had last month ordered the J&K Police to strictly implement the existing law on beef ban in the state.

Sources said the deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader, Dr Nirmal Singh, had recently issued directions to the administration in Jammu to strictly implement the existing law on beef ban, which had irked the PDP.

Vishal Sharma is son of Leela Karan Sharma, the right-wing VHP's state president who led the two-month long agitation over Amarnath land row in Jammu, Vishal led the defence of the case at J&K High Court and faces accusations of "failing" to defend the government's argument in the case.