NCLAT go-ahead to Aakash for EGM on rights issue; junks Glas Trust plea

New Delhi, Oct 28 (PTI) The insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT on Tuesday gave a go-ahead to the EGM of Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) for the rights issue of the company, while rejecting the plea

of Glas Trust, the US-based largest creditor of Think & Learn Pvt Ltd (TLPL).

A two-member Chennai-based bench of NCLAT said it “hardly finds a reason to hold that Glas Trust has established a prima facie case for granting an injunction”.

Rejecting the plea of Glas Trust, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) said the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is a “blood thirsty” law that “authorises interference in the internal affairs of a company in which a Corporate Debtor (CD) may hold some shares”.

Glas Trust, which owns over 90 per cent of voting shares in the CoC of TLPL, had submitted if the share capital of AESL is allowed to be increased, it would not only reduce the valuation of shares of TLPL, but also reduce the percentage of shares.

TLPL owns insolvency-bound edtech firm Byju’s.

Rejecting Glas Trust’s petition, NCLAT said it is true that IBC aims to maximise the asset value of the company as TLPL is going through insolvency processes but “it has not sanctioned the idea that every company in which the CD has a shareholding should sacrifice its own interest to stay, grow and sustain itself commercially for the benefit of the CD”.

Moreover, the statutory scheme of the IBC does not enable an understanding that every such company in which CD has shares should expose itself to the peril of being itself to an insolvency proceeding.

The value of TLPL’s shares in Akash can never be preserved if Akash is commercially killed, it said.

On Monday, during the proceedings, AESL submitted that the company is in dire need of funds and it has 3.5 lakh students and 10,000 employees and has to meet those expenses. Moreover, AESL is not a part of insolvency proceedings going against Byju’s, which has only a shareholding in this.

“Therefore, the spirit of IBC is best served when the companies in which CD has some shares are allowed to prosper, irrespective of who has the controlling power,” said the NCLAT bench comprising Justice N Seshasayee and Jatindranath Swain while dismissing the interim application (IA) filed by Glas Trust.

AESL is scheduled to have the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for October 29, 2025, in which shareholders will vote on rights issue to raise funds for the company.

Byju’s is going through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process.

Glas Trust, which owns over 90 per cent voting rights in the committee of creditors of Byju’s, had filed an application before the appellate tribunal against an earlier order passed by the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Moreover, in this matter, TLPL has also moved NCLAT. It had filed an appeal against the NCLT order, which last week declined its plea to restrain Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) from convening its EGM for the rights issue of the company.

Glas Trust has sought a stay to protect the interest of TLPL, which owns around 25 per cent of the stake in AESL and said that after the right issue, the stake of the insolvency-bound edtech firm will be diluted.

On Oct 17, 2025, the Bengaluru-based bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) declined to grant any interim relief on the second plea filed by the insolvency-bound edtech firm Byju’s, to stay the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) scheduled for October 29, 2025. PTI KRH TRB