June 26, 1984

The Federal appeals court here ruled unanimously today that no court had power to order appointment of an independent counsel over the objection of the Attorney General. Acting with unusual speed, eight appelate judges reversed a May 14 decision by Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene ordering Attorney General William French Smith to have an independent counsel investigate how the 1980 Reagan campaign obtained documents from the Carter White House and campaign. ''We are of the conviction,'' the appeals court said, ''that Congress specifically intended in the Ethics in Government Act to preclude judicial review, at the behest of members of the public, of the Attorney General's decisions not to investigate or seek appointment of an independent counsel with respect to officials covered by the Act.'' No Opinion on Evidence In dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction, the court expressed no opinion on whether there was enough evidence of crimes by high-level officials to warrant appointment of an independent counsel. Mr. Smith has contended there was not.

The basic rent for about 350,000 rent- stabilized apartments in New York City will rise by up to 9 percent under regulations adopted yesterday by the Rent Guidelines Board. The increases, 6 percent for one-year leases and 9 percent for two-year leases, were voted after a typically raucous public hearing at which representatives of landlord and tenant groups waved signs, chanted and screamed obscenties at the board members. The increases are for rent-stabilized apartments with leases that start in the 12-month period beginning Oct. 1. Three-year leases are no longer offered for the city's 950,000 rent-stabilized apartments.

Senator Gary Hart today withdrew his threat to challenge several hundred national convention delegates pledged to Walter F. Mondale and agreed to meet with Mr. Mondale on Tuesday. With the convention three weeks away, the action appeared to resolve one of the last disputes facing the party. Mr. Hart said today that he would continue his fight to win the Presidential nomination but that a challenge on the delegates would ''surely'' splinter the party. ''I will take no part in any action that makes our convention one of divisiveness or rancor,'' he said in a letter to Charles T. Manatt, the Democratic national chairman. The Mondale-Hart meeting, to take place in New York City, was arranged by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who warmly endorsed Mr. Mondale in St. Paul today. (Page B6.)

The long-awaited first audit of USA Today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations has confirmed that the colorful national newspaper, started by the Gannett Company in 1982, is the nation's third-largest daily newspaper behind The Wall Street Journal and The Daily News. USA Today's average paid circulation in the three-month audit period ending Dec. 31 was 1,138,030, the A.B.C. announced yesterday. It also released an unaudited statement filed by the newspaper's publisher for the first quarter of 1984, claiming average paid circulation of 1,284,613, which would be a 13 percent increase. The audited data drew a positive response from some advertising executives and media analysts.

A Federal indictment charged nine defendants yesterday with a tax-evasion scheme that involved selling ''ministries'' in the Life Science Church to thousands of people, including many police officers in New York City. For a fee of up to $4,400 each, the indictment said, people became ''ministers'' and avoided paying income taxes by claiming that they used their incomes to operate tax-exempt churches. The 19-count indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said the nine defendants accused of heading the operation had obtained almost $10 million in three years and had deprived the Government of millions of dollars in taxes. ''We will proceed with more indictments in the near future,'' United States Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani said at a news conference. He said a two- year investigation was continuing into the Life Science Church and similar organizations that sold purportedly tax-exempt ministries.