can ever the intent received by a BroadcastReceiver be null?

In other words :

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    final String action = intent.getAction(); // can intent==null here ?
    // could it ever throw a NPE ?
}

I need to solve this once and for all so please no ifs and buts. I would check for null but I suspect that it is not needed and therefore it is clumsy and inelegant to check. I had searched in the docs but have not found anything

EDIT : asked at google groups - see there for some interesting points