diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 3f893acb583..a8d3c7d4075 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -236,8 +236,6 @@ Bug Fixes
 27. SOLR-991: Better error message when parsing solrconfig.xml fails due to malformed XML. Error message notes the name
     of the file being parsed. (Michael Henson via shalin)
 
-28. SOLR-435: NullPointerException with no query or empty query (ryan, Lars Kotthoff via shalin)
-
 
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java
index d882e0bc2e1..84571bde052 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/solr/handler/component/QueryComponent.java
@@ -74,12 +74,7 @@ public class QueryComponent extends SearchComponent
     defType = defType==null ? OldLuceneQParserPlugin.NAME : defType;
 
     if (rb.getQueryString() == null) {
-      rb.setQueryString(params.get(CommonParams.Q));
-      String queryString = params.get(CommonParams.Q);
-      if (queryString == null) {
-        throw new SolrException(SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST,
-                "Missing or empty required parameter: q");
-      }
+      rb.setQueryString( params.get( CommonParams.Q ) );
     }
 
     try {