RAJIV SHAKDHER, J.

1. The petitioners have invoked, Article 226 of the Constitution, to assail order No. 10 of 2014, dated 15.11.2014, passed by Shri Vikas Singh, Deputy Director in the Directorate of Enforcement (DOE). This order has been passed under Section 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (in short the PMLA) to provisionally attach properties of petitioners which, according to the respondents, represent proceeds of crime.

1.1 The reason, I have adverted to the name of the officer in the preceding sub-paragraph, is on account of a submission made with some vehemence, that the, impugned order was not passed by the officer, named above. I shall deal with this aspect, amongst others, in the course of my discussion.

2. The broad factual matrix, in which, the challenge has arisen is as follows:

2.1 In 1999, the Indian Air Force (I.A.F.) had proposed to the Government of India (G.O.I), Ministry of Defence (M.O.D) to replace the existing MI-8 VIP helicopters, on account of operational difficulties faced by the organisation.

2.2 Based on I.A.F’s proposal, in October