Badar Durrez Ahmed, J.

1. This is a petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 seeking the setting aside of the award dated 30.06.2005 made by an arbitral tribunal comprising of three arbitrators. The challenge is essentially to the question of arbitrability of claim No. 1 which has been decided by the arbitral tribunal in favor of the claimant (respondent No. 1) herein. The petitioner has also raised issues with regard to limitation and has urged that part of the claim was time barred. It was also contended that the payments which had been made to the petitioner upon certificates issued by the architect cannot be overturned inasmuch as the architect has acted as an agent of the respondent No. 1. Lastly, it was contended that the decision making process of the arbitrators turned out to be a travesty of justice inasmuch as the majority view on the question of arbitrability decided as per the order dated 09.09.2004 had been notified only by the presiding arbitrator and such an order would be illegal in the absence of the signatures of the other arbitrators.

2. The respondent No. 1, who was the claimant before the arbitral tribunal, made submissio