Air India — delayed baggage compensation

We had a disappointing experience recently flying with air-india and reporting this as a complaint, as well as a feedback to other passengers in similar experience in future.
We are a family of 3 (Couple + 12 yr old child) and booked our tickets with air india for return trip from auckland-sydney-delhi-kolkata-auckland, departing auckland on 18/12/18. Each passenger was allowed up to 2 pieces and 30 kg of registered baggage, and we checked in total 5 registered baggage, weighing total 70 kg at auckland airport, for all the way through to kolkata. We were issued boarding passes by ground staff at auckland airport, and each passenger’s boarding pass had 5 baggage tag no printed.
We had transit stops in sydney and new delhi and arrived in kolkata, after nearly 22 hours of travel around midnight of 18/12. After waiting for our baggage at the carousal for a long time and when all left with their luggage, we realised that our bags did not make it and a pir report was filled-in by a ground staff.
We received our luggage after 2 days, on 20/12/18 early afternoon, delivered to the local address in kolkata we provided in the pir. Later that day, we were advised by air-india kolkata staff through email that since the baggage was delayed more than 24 hrs after arrival, as per air-india policy there will be a compensation amount of rs 3, 000 per passenger.

However, the shock came when it further mentioned that since all the bags were registered by auckland ground staff reportedly against only 1 passenger’s name and the pir at kolkata airport was also filled under a single name, only 1 passenger is eligible for the compensation. We find this unfair and disappointing by a national carrier. It is quite usual and normal by ground staff world-wide, for group check-in by a family, to register the bags in 1 ticket. Clearly, 5 bags and 70 kg weight would have not been admissible for 1 passenger alone.in any case, so far we were concerned, this was not our doing as the baggage registration was done by airlines staff and we were not privy to that. For us, each passenger’s boarding pass had all the registered bag nos printed, and the inconvenience faced for the missing bags was same and true for all 3 passengers. I responded to the email explaining our viewpoint as above, and declined to accept a single compensation as a matter of principle. I have received reply from air india, sticking to their position and declaring that we are eligible only rs. 3000 for 1 passenger.

We have decided to decline the offer by air-india to compensate only a single passenger, which in our opinion, besides being unfair is humiliating too and intend to raise this complaint as consumers.