diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
index b05eef7d7a1f..3c8b4dba3d2d 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/core.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
@@ -5867,14 +5867,11 @@ void __init sched_init_smp(void)
 	/*
 	 * There's no userspace yet to cause hotplug operations; hence all the
 	 * CPU masks are stable and all blatant races in the below code cannot
-	 * happen. The hotplug lock is nevertheless taken to satisfy lockdep,
-	 * but there won't be any contention on it.
+	 * happen.
 	 */
-	cpus_read_lock();
 	mutex_lock(&sched_domains_mutex);
 	sched_init_domains(cpu_active_mask);
 	mutex_unlock(&sched_domains_mutex);
-	cpus_read_unlock();
 
 	/* Move init over to a non-isolated CPU */
 	if (set_cpus_allowed_ptr(current, housekeeping_cpumask(HK_FLAG_DOMAIN)) < 0)