NoClassDefFoundError: class sun.awt.image.ByteInterleavedRaster

Question

I am getting an error:

NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.image.ByteInterleavedRaster

What I am trying to achieve?

I am generating a PDF file using iText that calls the getHeader method that sets a header logo to the PDf file.

Suddenly, I am facing the following exception & I have no idea what it is referring to.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.image.ByteInterleavedRaster
    org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction.dispatchMethod(DispatchAction.java:295)
    org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction.execute(DispatchAction.java:170)
    org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processActionPerform(RequestProcessor.java:425)
    org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(RequestProcessor.java:228)
    org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
    org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doPost(ActionServlet.java:462)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:647)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)

root cause

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.image.ByteInterleavedRaster
    java.awt.image.Raster.createWritableRaster(Raster.java:980)
    java.awt.image.Raster.createWritableRaster(Raster.java:941)
    javax.imageio.ImageTypeSpecifier.createBufferedImage(ImageTypeSpecifier.java:1073)
    javax.imageio.ImageReader.getDestination(ImageReader.java:2896)
    com.sun.imageio.plugins.png.PNGImageReader.readImage(PNGImageReader.java:1280)
    com.sun.imageio.plugins.png.PNGImageReader.read(PNGImageReader.java:1577)
    javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1448)
    javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1308)
    com.appraisal.utility.Methods.getHeader(Methods.java:498)
    com.appraisal.process.ReviewLetterAction.viewletter(ReviewLetterAction.java:1276)
    sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction.dispatchMethod(DispatchAction.java:269)
    org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction.execute(DispatchAction.java:170)
    org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.processActionPerform(RequestProcessor.java:425)
    org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor.process(RequestProcessor.java:228)
    org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
    org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doPost(ActionServlet.java:462)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:647)
    javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:728)