Cheque bouncing: company bounced cheques of many employees

Dear sir, Please help us in this case. All the accuseds are newly passed graduates from eminent engineering colleges like IITs, NITs, DCE etc. So their career is at stake; please help. They are trapped by a wicked company. A coaching institute hired many employees,( fresh passouts from IITs, NITs, DCE) on the condition for three months training and 6 months probation after completion of training. At the time of joining, HR manager asked the employees to submit two post-dated cheques, a bond of not quitting before three years. Cheque were from the salary account bank only( which was opened by the company) First cheque was against the training cost plus salary of the training period: Rs. 60,000/- (training cost as said by the coaching institute) plus Rs. 75,000/- (salary of three months of training) = Rs. 1,35,000/- Second cheque was against the salary of 6 months probation duration: 1,80,000/- There was no proper training. There was inhumane treatment by the company. Employees were harassed. Salary was not paid on time. Some started falling sick, some physically, some mentally. It became impossible for most of the employees to continue. When employees talked to the HR manager, he asked to resign. Some resigned; some were so pissed off with the work culture that they left the company. All left the company before completion of training i.e. before 3 months of training. Later the company bounced the first cheque and served notice to pay the money. No one paid and now there is Section 138 case against all. There are about 12 such cases. No one got the complete salary of three months. So the amount in the cheque was not exactly what the employees were supposed to pay. All have hired one lawyer only. Can this case be brought out of section 138 and made a civil case? What other things do you suggest? Also in the complaint the company has written different amount at different places. There is no clear descriptttion of the amount they are claiming. So can that make the complaint invalid. I read some where that post-dated cheques for security do not come under sec 138. Also the laiblity is not the same as in the cheque beacuse salary was not given. Please help what can be done. Thanking you A victim