diff --git a/net/socket.c b/net/socket.c
index 88f759adf3af..9663df63e3d1 100644
--- a/net/socket.c
+++ b/net/socket.c
@@ -1173,15 +1173,6 @@ static int sock_mmap(struct file *file, struct vm_area_struct *vma)
 
 static int sock_close(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
 {
-	/*
-	 *      It was possible the inode is NULL we were
-	 *      closing an unfinished socket.
-	 */
-
-	if (!inode) {
-		printk(KERN_DEBUG "sock_close: NULL inode\n");
-		return 0;
-	}
 	sock_release(SOCKET_I(inode));
 	return 0;
 }