Gujarat High Court Civil Manual (subordinate court practice), 1960
The system of appointing Civil Judges as arbitrators in suits pending before them, though legal and convenient, is open to objection. A party may sometimes be compelled against his wishes to agree to such an arbitration; and it may be difficult for a litigant to raise objections successfully to an award on the ground of erroneous procedure or technical misconduct of the arbitrator before the Court when the Presiding Officer was himself the arbitrator. Further it is undesirable that Judges who have given awards as arbitrators should be subject to reckless personal charges at the instance of suitors disappointed by an award. The practice, therefore, of presiding judges acting as arbitrators in suits pending before them is undesirable.