useless instruction ?

Hi,

Here is an excerpt of texi2html code (l 3589 texi2html.pl):

....
        for $section (keys %sec2number)
        {
            $node2href{$sec2node{$section}} =~ /SEC(\d+)$/;
            $node = $sec2node{$section};
            $node2up{$node} = Sec2UpNode($section) unless $node2up{$node};
            $node2prev{$node} = Sec2PrevNode($section) unless $node2prev{$node};
            $node2next{$node} = Sec2NextNode($section) unless $node2next{$node};
        }
....

It seems to me that the line:
            $node2href{$sec2node{$section}} =~ /SEC(\d+)$/;
does absolutely nothing, as $node2href{$sec2node{$section}}
is not modified and $1 is not used in the code following that
line. 
Can anybody confirm that or point me where I am wrong ?

Pat