If you are in fact, using the rights issue route to circumvent the provisions of section 42, then surely, facts would help in determining whether the company offered (directly or indirectly) or the shareholders renounced. The testing issue is not renouncement but how the renouncement was made, whether the shareholders renounced or acted as agent of the company and offered to the third party( naming it to be renouncement however, in fact, offering as per sec 42) indirectly, on behalf of the Company, to circumvent provisions of section 42.
In case of pvt. ltd. companies, on the basis of facts and circumstances, court would determine the true essence of the transaction. If the applicant could prove that the shares were offered to him through the shareholder (that could be treated as an AGENT) and not as a renouncement or he was never made aware of the fact that it was a renouncement case, then section 42 would be very much relevant !
Purposive interpretation is very much, relevant here. Analysis on case to case basis + proper documentation, is very much important.