Judgemnt on sec 16 of A & C Act 1996

We, therefore, hold that the respondent must be deemed to have waived any objection to the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal when it chose not to raise the plea now being raised by it, though it was fully aware of the terms of the agreement entered into between the parties. Section 34(iv) cannot come to the rescue of the respondent as the said section cannot be read in isolation and allowed to render otiose the provisions of Sections 4, 5 and 16 of the Act which, in a sense, are the high points of the Act. Any other interpretation of the aforesaid provisions of the statute would not only deprive the winning party of the fruit of its hard earned labour at the end of a long drawn out battle, but, in our considered opinion, would be opposed to public policy,as it would inevitably result in colossal waste of time, money and energy, all of which are necessarily expended in the arbitral process. This apart, it would frustrate the object of the Act itself viz., to provide for expeditious disposal of a dispute by recourse to arbitration.