diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 66e84aa871..c186feb524 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #3009: Bad rendering of parsed-literals in LaTeX since Sphinx 1.4.4
 * #3000: ``option`` directive generates invalid HTML anchors
 * #2984: Invalid HTML has been generated if `html_split_index` enabled
-* #2986: themes/basic/defindex.html should be changed for html5 friendly
+* Remove themes/basic/defindex.html; no longer used
 
 Documentation
 -------------
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/defindex.html b/sphinx/themes/basic/defindex.html
deleted file mode 100644
index 33becfa0d6..0000000000
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/defindex.html
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-{#
-    basic/defindex.html
-    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-    Default template for the "index" page.
-
-    :copyright: Copyright 2007-2016 by the Sphinx team, see AUTHORS.
-    :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
-#}
-{%- extends "layout.html" %}
-{% set title = _('Overview') %}
-{% block body %}
-  <h1>{{ docstitle|e }}</h1>
-  <p>
-    {{ _('Welcome! This is') }}
-    {% block description %}{{ _('the documentation for') }} {{ project|e }}
-    {{ release|e }}{% if last_updated %}, {{ _('last updated') }} {{ last_updated|e }}{% endif %}{% endblock %}.
-  </p>
-  {% block tables %}
-  <p><strong>{{ _('Indices and tables:') }}</strong></p>
-  <table class="contentstable"><tr>
-    <td style="width: 50%">
-      <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("contents") }}">{{ _('Complete Table of Contents') }}</a><br>
-         <span class="linkdescr">{{ _('lists all sections and subsections') }}</span></p>
-      <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("search") }}">{{ _('Search Page') }}</a><br>
-         <span class="linkdescr">{{ _('search this documentation') }}</span></p>
-    </td><td style="width: 50%">
-      <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("modindex") }}">{{ _('Global Module Index') }}</a><br>
-         <span class="linkdescr">{{ _('quick access to all modules') }}</span></p>
-      <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("genindex") }}">{{ _('General Index') }}</a><br>
-         <span class="linkdescr">{{ _('all functions, classes, terms') }}</span></p>
-    </td></tr>
-  </table>
-  {% endblock %}
-{% endblock %}