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These clauses are used by lawyers in civil disputes (divorce etc.) to speed up the legal proceedings by making it a criminal case, and to reduce the number of adjournments. Criminal conviction is not the real end here, it is a pressure tactic to get the civil judgment.

Note that India does not have a robust tradition of out-of-court settlement etc.

Conviction rates are misleading. They do not shed light on how and why these IPC clauses are invoked.

Another oncoming danger is POCSO - parents might use child molestation clauses against each other in civil disputes like divorce. See a recent judgment of Kerala High Court related to this instructing lawyers not to invoke this clause for frivolous purposes:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/pocso-convicti...