diff --git a/lucene/backward-codecs/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestBackwardsCompatibility.java b/lucene/backward-codecs/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestBackwardsCompatibility.java
index f8956d55766..a2a74918791 100644
--- a/lucene/backward-codecs/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestBackwardsCompatibility.java
+++ b/lucene/backward-codecs/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestBackwardsCompatibility.java
@@ -666,7 +666,7 @@ public class TestBackwardsCompatibility extends LuceneTestCase {
     // true if this is a 4.9+ index
     final boolean is49Index = MultiFields.getMergedFieldInfos(reader).fieldInfo("dvSortedNumeric") != null;
 
-    assert is40Index; // NOTE: currently we can only do this on trunk!
+    assert is40Index;
 
     final Bits liveDocs = MultiFields.getLiveDocs(reader);