MUMBAI, Oct. 11 -- The Bombay High Court recently held that individual members of a co-operative housing society cannot assert their rights in a litigation founded on the society's contract with a third party. The court refused to allow 61 members of a housing society to intervene in a matter between the developer and the society. A single bench of justice Jitendra Jain said, "Once a person becomes a member of a co-operative society, he loses his individuality as a separate litigating entity and cannot advance independent claims in a suit that enforces an agreement to which only the society and the developer are parties." The dispute arose from a development agreement in April 2003, between a developer, Nitin Chandrakant Patel, proprietor of Mahalaxmi Land Development, and the Pariwar Co-operative Housing Society Ltd, in Sion. Under the agreement the society gave Patel the right to certain plots reserved for a district centre and a school, and in return he agreed to construct around 500 flats for the society and pay a certain amount. The land given to the developer included a 5,412 sq-mtr plot in Kanjur. The builder told the court that he had kept his side of the agreement, built 485 flats, and paid the required amount, and therefore the society ought to transfer the Kanjur plot to him. However, 61 members of the society asked the court to intervene in the matter claiming that a 2014 high court order permitted them to "take part in the management of the society". Patel pointed out that the applicants had admitted they were members of the society, and legally, an individual member does not possess independent legal rights to the society's land. Justice Jain held that the 2003 agreement, executed by the society and not challenged in any forum, remained binding between the society and the developer. The court held that if the members had any issues with the society's functioning or decisions, they must be addressed by legal proceedings directly against the society....