Can infrared cameras be used in the presence of light or is it compulsory it has to be used in the dark, to get a thermal image of the desired object?
Infrared light and visible light has nothing to do with each other (well, not much). An infrared camera works the same in a bright room as it does in the dark. It captures the same thermal image. There should be little, if any, difference. At least indoors.

However, the sun also generates infrared light. And the sun also heats up things. You can still capture thermal images outside but what you're capturing is just that - an image of how hot objects are. If you're in the desert for example, almost everything will be roughly the same temperature (except maybe a large block of ice melting slowly). If you're in snow then mammals and car engines will look hot.

What you need is not a cooling system for the camera. What you need is a cooling system for "outside" from the sun. Conveniently we get that naturally when night comes. So it's not the darkness of night that makes thermal cameras more effective at night. It's the lack of heat form the sun.