Is it unfair?

Surprisingly enough, hours and hours of debate can be generated by raising the following seemingly innocuous question. (I've recently experienced this first hand.) In a school with multiple sections of one course, is it fair for teachers to have different policies? If one teacher has a 30-point penalty for late papers, is it unfair if another teacher has a 50-point penalty? Amazingly enough, this can be the seed for a long, heated, and pretty interesting conversation!