New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS): The honorary doctorate to the Hindi film star Shahrukh Khan was rejected as per a policy followed by the government, an official of the Human Resource Development Ministry said on Friday.

As per an RTI filed by an English national daily, Jamia Milia Islamia's request to grant an honorary doctorate to Shahrukh Khan was turned down by the HRD Ministry last year.

"The JMI wrote to the HRD Ministry for conferring honoris causa to Shah Rukh Khan. The Ministry did not agree as he has already been conferred the degree by Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANNU) in 2016," Jamia Millia Islamia said in response to an RTI query by The Indian Express.

Responding to the incident, Secretary for higher education, MHRD, R. Subrahmanyam told IANS that the degree was denied to the superstar according to a policy under which anyone who has already been given such a doctorate should not be conferred with another.

"In the last two-three years, there hasn't been a case where the ministry has accepted a person to be conferred with two doctorate... If a person is honored, that doesn't mean that everyone else should honour the same person. His merit is already recognised by the President of India and that's it," Subrahmanyam said.

Khan is an alumnus of the A.J.K. Mass Communications Research Centre, a constituent of Institute of Jamia.