diff --git a/ratis-docs/src/site/markdown/configurations.md b/ratis-docs/src/site/markdown/configurations.md
index acd1cb9f9e..0f20540a20 100644
--- a/ratis-docs/src/site/markdown/configurations.md
+++ b/ratis-docs/src/site/markdown/configurations.md
@@ -226,6 +226,27 @@ if it fails to receive any RPC responses from this peer within this specified ti
 | **Type**        | boolean                                                               |
 | **Default**     | false                                                                 |
 
+| **Property**    | `raft.server.read.leader.heartbeat-check.enabled` |
+|:----------------|:--------------------------------------------------|
+| **Description** | whether to check heartbeat for read index.        |
+| **Type**        | boolean                                           |
+| **Default**     | true                                              |
+
+Note that the original read index algorithm requires heartbeat check
+in order to guarantee linearizable read.
+By setting this property to false,
+it reduces the RTT by eliminating the heartbeat check.
+However, it might cause the reads not to be linearizable in a split-brain case.
+Without the heartbeat check, a leader might not be the latest leader
+and, as a result, it might serve stale reads.
+When there is a split brain, there might be a small period of time
+that the (old) leader has lost majority heartbeats but have not yet detected it.
+As the same time, a new leader is elected by a majority of peers.
+Then, the old leader might serve stale data
+since it does not have the transactions committed by the new leaders.
+Since such split-brain case is supposed to be rare,
+it might be an acceptable tradeoff for applications that 
+seek to improve the linearizable read performance.
 
 ### Write - Configurations related to write requests.
 
diff --git a/ratis-server-api/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/RaftServerConfigKeys.java b/ratis-server-api/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/RaftServerConfigKeys.java
index 2538a472a8..0786f7cf72 100644
--- a/ratis-server-api/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/RaftServerConfigKeys.java
+++ b/ratis-server-api/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/RaftServerConfigKeys.java
@@ -249,6 +249,17 @@ static void setLeaderLeaseTimeoutRatio(RaftProperties properties, double ratio)
       setDouble(properties::setDouble, LEADER_LEASE_TIMEOUT_RATIO_KEY, ratio);
     }
 
+    String LEADER_HEARTBEAT_CHECK_ENABLED_KEY = PREFIX + ".leader.heartbeat-check.enabled";
+    boolean LEADER_HEARTBEAT_CHECK_ENABLED_DEFAULT = true;
+    static boolean leaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled(RaftProperties properties) {
+      return getBoolean(properties::getBoolean, LEADER_HEARTBEAT_CHECK_ENABLED_KEY,
+          LEADER_HEARTBEAT_CHECK_ENABLED_DEFAULT, getDefaultLog());
+    }
+
+    static void setLeaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled(RaftProperties properties, boolean enabled) {
+      setBoolean(properties::setBoolean, LEADER_HEARTBEAT_CHECK_ENABLED_KEY, enabled);
+    }
+
     interface ReadAfterWriteConsistent {
       String PREFIX = Read.PREFIX + ".read-after-write-consistent";
 
diff --git a/ratis-server/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/impl/LeaderStateImpl.java b/ratis-server/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/impl/LeaderStateImpl.java
index 90d0b76df5..ef0bb6b700 100644
--- a/ratis-server/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/impl/LeaderStateImpl.java
+++ b/ratis-server/src/main/java/org/apache/ratis/server/impl/LeaderStateImpl.java
@@ -354,6 +354,7 @@ boolean isApplied() {
 
   private final ReadIndexHeartbeats readIndexHeartbeats;
   private final boolean readIndexAppliedIndexEnabled;
+  private final boolean leaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled;
   private final LeaderLease lease;
 
   LeaderStateImpl(RaftServerImpl server) {
@@ -392,6 +393,8 @@ boolean isApplied() {
     }
     this.readIndexAppliedIndexEnabled = RaftServerConfigKeys.Read.ReadIndex
         .appliedIndexEnabled(properties);
+    this.leaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled = RaftServerConfigKeys.Read
+        .leaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled(properties);
 
     final RaftConfigurationImpl conf = state.getRaftConf();
     Collection<RaftPeer> others = conf.getOtherPeers(server.getId());
@@ -1166,7 +1169,8 @@ CompletableFuture<Long> getReadIndex(Long readAfterWriteConsistentIndex) {
     }
 
     // if lease is enabled, check lease first
-    if (hasLease()) {
+    // if we allow leader to skip the leadership check heartbeat, we can return immediately
+    if (!leaderHeartbeatCheckEnabled || hasLease()) {
       return CompletableFuture.completedFuture(readIndex);
     }