Section 252 of the Companies Act, 1956 provides that every public company shall have at least three directors and every private company shall have at least two directors at all time in the Board of directors of the company.
The total strength of the Board is fixed in the Articles. Normally, the Articles contain the maximum number of directors as twelve, as the prior approval of the Central Government is required to have more than twelve directors in a public limited company. A private company can have more than twelve directors if its Articles permit.