'CHS Members Opposing Redevelopment Cannot Split Legal Challenges Across Courts': Bombay HC

Mumbai, September 1, 2026: The Bombay High Court has held that housing society members opposing redevelopment cannot divide their legal battles across multiple courts.

Court Sets Out Correct Forum

Justice Sandeep Marne, on August 28, dismissed a plea by 41 residents of Navi Mumbai’s Saujanya Cooperative Housing Society, observing that members must bring a single, combined challenge against both society resolutions and the development agreement in a Civil Court, rather than splitting the dispute between the Cooperative Court and Civil Court.

The court emphasised that the members aggrieved by both the society’s redevelopment resolutions and the development agreement must challenge them before the same court.

The members had opposed the redevelopment, claiming that the structures were not even 30 years old and did not require reconstruction.

Society’s Redevelopment Process

The society, comprising 69 ground-floor structures, had begun the redevelopment process in 2016. A project management consultant was selected in May 2021, while a redevelopment committee was authorised to select a developer in August 2021. Omkar Planet Buildcon was appointed as the developer in March 2022.

The petitioners challenged several resolutions before the Cooperative Court. Separately, they filed a civil suit challenging the development agreement and power of attorney.

The Cooperative Court rejected their dispute in March 2025, and the Cooperative Appellate Court upheld the decision in September 2025. The members then approached the High Court.

Challenge Cannot Be Segregated

Justice Marne said the central issue was to identify the correct forum for members challenging a society’s redevelopment process.

The High Court observed that once a development agreement has been executed and the developer has acquired an interest in the property, the developer cannot be impleaded in a Cooperative Court dispute in certain circumstances. Therefore, a challenge to the development agreement cannot effectively proceed there.

The court said a member “cannot segregate challenges” by filing a civil suit against the development agreement while separately approaching the Cooperative Court against the general body resolutions.

It held that the “correct remedy” was to file a civil suit raising a composite challenge to both the resolutions and the development agreement.

High Court Dismisses Plea

In the present case, the developer had acquired an interest in the society’s property in October 2023, while the Cooperative Court dispute was filed in June 2024. The court said the petitioners’ challenge to the resolutions alone would be “meaningless” without challenging the development agreement.

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Justice Marne also noted that the petitioners had not pleaded that redevelopment formed part of the society’s business or that its bye-laws had been amended accordingly.

Finding no merit in the challenge, the court dismissed the writ petition and upheld the orders of the Cooperative Court and the Cooperative Appellate Court.

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