11) Mr. Ashok Desai, learned senior counsel for the ECI submitted that the apprehension that EVMs could be tampered with is baseless. It was also informed to this Court that the ECI has been exploring the possibility of incorporating a viable Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system as a part of the presently used EVMs to make the election system more transparent. Further, it was brought to our notice that the ECI conducted field trials for VVPAT system earlier also but the same had not been successful and were discontinued. The ECI also filed a counter affidavit stating that the EVMs provided by the Commission are of such a high end technology that it cannot be hacked. 12) Referring to Section 61A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, it is submitted that the Statute itself provides for recording of votes by EVMs and the ECI has been given the discretion to prescribe recording of votes by such EVMs as it may deem fit. This discretion has to be exercised in a manner to preserve the sanctity of the election process and ensure that the election is conducted in a free and fair 6 Page 6