Query on physical stock take of a firm

Internal auditor may take physical stock verification to ascertain 31.3.14 actual stock. In advance they may give instruction not to receive/issue stock for 1-2 days by mutual discussion of auditor and client. But they may not be so hard as explained by you. Statutory auditor will rely upon internal auditor's opinion and may take sample based physical stock verification.

No, he can't deny but for this you can ask for MRL and having regard the circumstance due to which they refused to conduct verification in bussiness hours, decide further procedure. If it is not possible to conduct verification, do it  after buisness hours.

you can refer to rights of an auditor. there is no need to go specific for inspection of stock physically. Auditor can have access to any data during reporting period. If management denies it is limitation on scope of audit. You can disclose in report.