diff --git a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
index 8a9d5abf173f..f5737c07ea04 100755
--- a/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
+++ b/deepspeed/runtime/engine.py
@@ -585,6 +585,12 @@ def _configure_distributed_model(self, model):
     def _configure_optimizer(self, client_optimizer, model_parameters):
 
         if client_optimizer is not None:
+            client_optimizer.param_groups[:] = [
+                pg for pg in client_optimizer.param_groups if len(pg["params"]) != 0
+            ]
+            logger.info(
+                "Removing param_group that has no 'params'in the client Optimizer")
+
             basic_optimizer = client_optimizer
             if self.global_rank == 0:
                 logger.info('Using client Optimizer as basic optimizer')