diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/SearchContext.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/SearchContext.java
index eec9f9d5b60..41b8e4a86d9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/SearchContext.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/internal/SearchContext.java
@@ -199,12 +199,6 @@ public class SearchContext implements Releasable {
                 scopePhase.clear();
             }
         }
-        // we should close this searcher, since its a new one we create each time, and we use the IndexReader
-        try {
-            searcher.close();
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            // ignore any exception here
-        }
         engineSearcher.release();
         return true;
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/all/SimpleAllTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/all/SimpleAllTests.java
index ff4ade9d346..df0fd614ea4 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/all/SimpleAllTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/unit/common/lucene/all/SimpleAllTests.java
@@ -110,8 +110,6 @@ public class SimpleAllTests {
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[0].doc, equalTo(0));
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[1].doc, equalTo(1));
 
-        searcher.close();
-
         indexWriter.close();
     }
 
@@ -154,8 +152,6 @@ public class SimpleAllTests {
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[0].doc, equalTo(0));
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[1].doc, equalTo(1));
 
-        searcher.close();
-
         indexWriter.close();
     }
 
@@ -207,8 +203,6 @@ public class SimpleAllTests {
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[0].doc, equalTo(0));
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[1].doc, equalTo(1));
 
-        searcher.close();
-
         indexWriter.close();
     }
 
@@ -260,8 +254,6 @@ public class SimpleAllTests {
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[0].doc, equalTo(0));
         assertThat(docs.scoreDocs[1].doc, equalTo(1));
 
-        searcher.close();
-
         indexWriter.close();
     }
 }