No proceedings for divorce shall be entertained by the court by virtue of Article 49(2) or (6) while proceedings for divorce or nullity of marriage begun before 1st January 1974 are pending (in respect of the same marriage) in England and Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man; and provision may be made by rules of court as to when for the purposes of this paragraph proceedings are to be treated as begun or pending in any of those places.

Nothing in Article 49 affects the court's jurisdiction to entertain any proceedings begun before 1st January 1974.